from Nakaji Yasui and Tampei Photography Club. Lot 42On May 19 Christie’s will be holding an auction of Photobooks. The 191 lot event features many of the 20th/21st century’s leading photographers.
About the auction Sven Becker, the photography specialist at Christie’s, tells Book Patrol:
The selection is representative of the broad trends in photobooks from about 1900 to the present: from Henry Emerson’s Marsh Leaves (1895) right up to Christieen Meindertsma’s Pig 05049 (2007). The auction includes fantastic copies of great rarities: like Bellmer’s Les Jeux de la Poupee (lot 55) or Jack Smith’s The Beautiful Book (lot 75). But it also includes special copies of more readily available books: like Paul Fusco’s hommage to Bobby Kenedy, RFK Funeral Train, inscribed by the photographer to Norman Mailer, who had contributed the introductory text (lot 187). The auction is especially strong in Japanese photobooks, which are almost all in irreproachable condition; but close to home there’s also a copy of the deluxe issue of Stephen Shore’s seminal Uncommon Places, issued with an original photograph (lot 149)
Hans Bellmer’s Les jeux de la poupée — The Games of the Doll Lot 55For an electronic, ‘turing the pages’ version of the catalogue, click here