“A DECADE AHEAD OF ITS TIME”

TUGGENER, Jak. Fabrik. Ein Bildepos der Technik [Factory: A Photo-essay on Technology]. Zurich: Rotapfel, (1943). Tall quarto, original beige cloth, original dust jacket. $2200.

First edition of Tuggener’s outstanding photobook, with 71 full-page, black-and-white photogravures (many double-page) paying tribute to modern technology.

During WWII "Swiss neutrality enabled Jak Tuggener to practice modernist documentary photography freely and he makes a fine job of it in this book, employing several different modes to great effect… Tuggener moves effortlessly between large-format lucidity and grainy, blurred impressionism, in a book that is a decade ahead of its time" (Parr & Badger I:144). One of a select group whose work was showcased at MoMA's 1953 Post-War European Photography exhibit, Truggener (1904-88) here exhibits "the eye of the hunter, the dreamy eye of the painter; he can be a realist, a formalist, romantic, theatrical, surreal" (Introduction). With rarely found original "Tafelverzeichnis" (Table of Photographs) laid in; without scarce slipcase. Open Book, 134. See Roth, 146.

Book fine; light soiling, edge-wear to bright photographic dust jacket in near-fine condition.