“REINVIGORATING THE DOCUMENTARY PHOTOBOOK”: FIRST EDITION OF SNELWEG, HIGHWAYS IN THE NETHERLANDS

BAART, Theo, MARKERINK, Cary and METZ, Tracy. Snelweg: Highways in the Netherlands. (Amsterdam: Ideas on Paper, 1996). Oblong quarto, original stiff photographic wrappers. $800.

First edition of this innovative and “fascinating photobook” (Parr & Badger), with 191 images, including 132 in color, 58 in black-and-white and one yellow-toned image (and six gatefolds).

“The subject is the thing” in Snelweg: Highways in the Netherlands. Here that subject is the premise that “roads no longer merely lead to places: they are places.” This pivotal study of Dutch roads contains 191 images by photographers Baart and Markerink that “easily transcend the boundaries of illustration to make the volume a fascinating photobook with a creative balance between photograph and text… Snelweg is a compendium of the photographic styles of the last 25 years, with the New Topographic and the New European Colour modes predominating… As in the best documentary photobooks… this volume, along with others by Baart, represents a viable way of reinvigorating the documentary photobook” (Parr & Badger II:82). Text by Tracy Metz in Dutch and English. First edition printed in wrappers only and without dust jacket.

A fine copy, scarce.