“THE WORK OF PAUL STRAND HAS BECOME A LEGEND”: ASSOCIATION COPY OF PAUL STRAND, PHOTOGRAPHS 1915-1945

(STRAND, Paul) NEWHALL, Nancy. Paul Strand. Photographs 1915-1945. New York: Museum of Modern Art, (1945). Slim quarto, original green cloth. $800.

First edition, association copy of the first photography monograph published by New York’s Museum of Modern Art, with 23 photogravure plates, signed and dated “1952” by photographer Margery Lewis (Smith), longtime partner of photographer W. Eugene Smith who saw her own work featured in Steichen’s landmark 1955 Family of Man exhibit at MoMA.

To Alfred Stieglitz, “Paul Strand’s work is rooted in the best tradition of photography. His vision is potential. His work is pure.” This scarce retrospective of Strand’s work at mid-century, featuring 23 striking photogravure plates, is the first monograph published by the Museum of Modern Art on a photographer. Its essay by MoMA curator Nancy Newhall aptly notes that “the work of Paul Strand has becoma a legend. Rarely exhibited,” these images from 1919-1945 were freshly “seen as a whole”—from his earliest abstract views to “the increasingly majestic and tender interpretations of lands and peoples, from Gaspé 1929 through Vermont 1944.” Featuring famous images such as “White Fence,” “Cobweb in Rain” and “Ranchos de Taos Church.” First edition, second printing issued same year as first, without tipped-in errata slip or scarce dust jacket. From the library of photographer Margery Lewis (Smith), signed and dated by her. A longtime partner of renowned photographer W. Eugene Smith, the images of Lewis Smith were featured in Steichen’s Family of Man exhibit at MoMA.

Plates fine, lightest edge-wear to original cloth. A near-fine copy with a memorable association.