“THE CLASSIC BLACK-AND-WHITE PHOTO-STORY IS ALIVE AND WELL”: LIMITED FIRST EDITION OF THE MENNONITES, INSCRIBED IN THE YEAR OF PUBLICATION BY LARRY TOWELL

TOWELL, Larry. The Mennonites. (London: Phaidon, 2000). Quarto, original black cloth, original slipcase. $350.

Limited first edition, one of an unnumbered limitation in publisher’s original slipcase, precedes first trade edition, inscribed in the year of publication by Towell on the colophon page, “Larry Towell, Toronto, 30/11/00,” with 115 rich duotones, “an exquisitely printed, atmospheric” work (Graphis).

In Mennonites, the award-winning Magnum photographer Larry Towell chronicles “his unusual decade-long fellowship with several Old Colony Mennonite families in Canada and Mexico… Captivated by their vulnerable otherworldliness,” Towell was granted unique access to a world where “photography is customarily forbidden” (Graphis). Towell’s “keen eye for the striking composition” and an eloquent narrative “printed on a lightweight ‘Bible paper’ as befits his subject… prove that the classic black-and-white photo-story is alive and well” (Parr & Badger II:256). Limited first edition with 115 duotone photographs (many double-page) intersected by Towell’s eloquent text on soft vellum; an “exquisitely printed, atmospheric” work (Graphis).

A fine pristine copy, scarce inscribed.