“A SENSE OF THE SWEETNESS OF LIFE”

KERTÉSZ, André. André Kertész. The Manchester Collection. (Lausanne, Switzerland): Manchester Collection, (1984). Quarto, original stiff photographic wrappers. $400.

First edition, softcover, a tribute to Kertész on his 90th birthday, signed by him on the title page, with 297 duotone images comprising photographs selected by Kertész for a major collection of his work at England’s National Museum of Photography. From the library of noted photojournalist Peter Turnley.

Asked to select a Kertész photograph to accompany his commentary within, Henri Cartier-Bresson wrote, "I choose the next picture coming out of his camera. Each time André Kertész's shutter clicks I feel his heart beating." "Hailed as the founder of the humanist documentary approach" (Parr & Badger II:200), Kertész was praised by critic John Szarkowski for a vision rich with "a sense of the sweetness of life, a free and childlike pleasure in the beauty of the world" (Looking at Photographs, 92). First edition, first printing, published in commemoration of Kertész's 90th birthday. First edition in wrappers, published same year as first cloth edition, no priority established. Without dust jacket as issued. See Roth, 114. From the collection of noted photojournalist Peter Turnley, who has covered "almost every important international news event of the last 15 years" for Newsweek and Harper's Magazine (New York Times); signed by Turnley on the half title.

A fine association copy, scarce signed.