Landmark Books in All Fields
ItemID: #115794
Cost: $6,500.00

Decisive Moment

Henri Cartier-bresson

"ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT AND INFLUENTIAL PHOTOGRAPHERS OF THIS CENTURY": FIRST EDITION OF CARTIER-BRESSON'S DECISIVE MOMENT, 1952, IN ORIGINAL DUST JACKET DESIGNED BY MATISSE

CARTIER-BRESSON, Henri. The Decisive Moment. New York: Simon and Schuster, (1952). Folio, original pictorial boards, original dust jacket. Original laid-in caption booklet. $6500.

First edition in English, published simultaneously with the French, with 126 photographic illustrations by "the Raphael of 20th-century photographers," an association copy with the owner signature of award-winning American artist Edgar A. Batzell, a splendid copy with laid-in original caption book and the colorful dust jacket with design by Matisse.

"Cartier-Bresson has a special interest in photographing people and in capturing the essence of what has not previously been seen. He is famous for his theory of the 'decisive moment'—that is seizing the split second when the subject stands revealed in its most significant aspect. Today he ranks as one of the most important and influential photographers of this century" (Blodgett, 96)—"the Raphael of 20th-century photographers" (Icons of Photography, 58). Decisive Moment is Cartier-Bresson's most famous work, containing his most comprehensive and important statement on the meaning, technique, and utility of photography. "The simultaneous publication [of this edition with Images à la Sauvette] in New York in July 1952, with a cover by Matisse (who had just had his retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art) was a tremendous success" (Roth, 134). Separate caption pamphlet (rarely found) laid in. Scarce dust jacket with $12.50 price rubbed over. Parr & Badger I:208. Open Book, 154-5. This notable association copy contains the owner signature of award-winning artist Edgar A. Batzell, who studied at New York's Art Students League, and is listed in Who's Who in American Art. He was known for his abstract works and landscapes of his beloved Maine.

Book and caption booklet fine; very mild toning to colorful about-fine dust jacket.

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