“THE PHOTOGRAPHY OF HISTORY”: FIRST EDITION OF TEMPORARY DISCOMFORT: CHAPTER I-V, BOLDLY SIGNED BY JULES SPINATSCH

SPINATSCH, Jules. Temporary Discomfort: Chapter I-V. (Baden: Lars Müller, 2005). Tall quarto, original black leatherette, mounted color plate to rear board. $350.

First edition of Spinatsch’s innovative photobook on “the landscape of politics and power” (Parr & Badger), boldly signed by him on the final leaf, featuring 97 color and 20 black-and-white photographic plates (including two gatefolds).

The vivid color plates of Jules Spinatsch’s Temporary Discomfort offer a provocative, often ironic display of the forces that seek to isolate power. As media critic Martin Jaeggi notes within, Spinatsch “tells us once again the old story of the emperor’s new clothes” in his coverage of global economic conferences held in Davos, Genoa, New York, Evian and Geneva. By documenting these “meetings of the ‘world’s richest’ club, where the most prosperous nations meet to carve out the global economic order… Spinatsch demonstrates that the photography of history remains as uncertain as it ever was… [and] brilliantly delineates a landscape of politics and power” (Parr & Badger II:324). With essays by Jamie Shea of NATO and Martin Jaeggi. Text in English and German. Issued without dust jacket.

A fine copy, scarce signed.