Camera Studies in Iraq First Edition - Middle east - Bauman Rare Books

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Bauman Rare Books

Camera Studies in Iraq

MIDDLE EAST

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Camera Studies in Iraq

Camera Studies in Iraq

Camera Studies in Iraq

FIRST EDITION OF CAMERA STUDIES IN IRAQ, PUBLISHED IN BAGHDAD IN 1925, FEATURING 73 CAPTIVATING PHOTOGRAVURES OF LIFE IN IRAQ AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 20TH CENTURY

(IRAQ). Camera Studies in Iraq. [Baghdad: A. Kerim & Hasso Bros., 1925]. Oblong quarto (12-1/2 by 10 inches), cord-bound, original patterned cloth lettered in gilt.

First edition of this fascinating photographic survey of Iraq between the World Wars, with 73 sepia photogravures featuring Iraqi people, sites, ruins, and views on 50 English-captioned plates, published in Baghdad.

This striking photographic production depicts Iraq in the 1920s through 73 photogravures of people, street scenes, religious sites, monuments, markets, and ruins. The work is also of deep ethnographic interest, capturing the ethnic diversity of Iraq by showing its Bedouin, Jewish, Kurdish, and Assyrian residents engaged in daily life, as well by providing many photogravure images of Muslim subjects. Additionally, this work takes care to show women and children at work and play, offering a now unfamiliar glimpse of their lives in peacetime. Three of the photographs included here are aerial views labeled "RAF Official Photograph."

Plates clean, light rubbing to extremities of original binding. A near-fine copy of a scarce work.

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Aquatint Copperplate process by which the plate is “bitten” by exposure to acid. By changing the areas of the plate that are exposed and the length of time the plate is submerged in the acid bath, the engraver can obtain fine and varying shades of gray that closely resemble watercolor washes. Although the name contains the word “tint”, this is a black-and-white printing process; aquatint plates can often be hand colored, however.
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