11 volumes. Text in French. Edited by Charles Peignot. Lavishly illustrated with hand-pulled héliogravures by the most accomplished photographers of the interwar period. 31.3x24 cm (12¼x9½"), spiral-bound wrappers. The first issue is presented in a blue cloth clamshell box lettered in gilt on spine. First Editions.
“Photographie” was an annual publication of the magazine Arts et Métiers Graphiques entirely dedicated to photography. Published under the direction of Charles Peignot, Arts et Métiers Graphiques was famous for its new photographic vision and has become the "Who's Who” of modern photography. Peignot and his friends Jean Cocteau, Maximilain Vox, A. M. Cass André, Jean Carlu and Paul Colin formed the Paris-based group Union des Artiste Moderne, a group "strongly against anything backward looking." Charles Peignot first published Arts et Métiers Graphiques in 1927, but the first of the 11 special issues on “Photographie" only appeared in March, 1930. The special issue of 1930 contributed to the larger public’s “discovery” of Moholy-Nagy, Man Ray, Roger Parry, Maurice Tabard, Max Burchartz, Herbert Bayer and others. The success of this special issue led the Arts et Métiers publishing organization to produce a new photographic collection each year, under the same title but now out of series. Ten were published thru 1940, with an 11th issue following W.W.II. Contributors to the later issues were also world-class photographers from every genre—Bauhaus modernism, abstraction, constructivism, scientific imaging, advertising photography. Important contributors include: André Kertész, Brassaï, Lee Miller, Cecil Beaton, Edward Weston, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Andreas Feininger, Paul Outerbridge, and Edward Steichen among many others.
Condition:
Modest wear with some closed edge tears to wrappers, some creasing, bumps and a few tears at spiral binding, 1938 issue with more substantial tears to rear cover; leaves toned a bit; photogravures generally very good or better; overall very good.