TAOS PUEBLO, SIGNED BY ADAMS

ADAMS, Ansel and AUSTIN, Mary. Taos Pueblo. Facsimile edition. Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1977. Tall folio, original half tan calf, orange cloth boards, marbled endpapers, original matching slipcase. $3200.

Signed limited edition, number 627 of 950 copies signed by Adams of this work exploring the fluid relationship between the architecture of Pueblo buildings and the Southwestern landscape. A fine facsimile of the very rare original 1930 edition, with 12 finely screened duotones by Ansel Adams and woodcut motifs by Valenti Angelo.

"When Taos Pueblo, Adams' first book, was published in 1930, he was 28… [and] had only recently put aside a nascent career as a concert pianist to pursue photography full time… The twelve photos in Taos Pueblo… include several formal portraits reminiscent of Edward Curtis and neatly circumscribed, almost intimate landscapes… The best of them are architectural studies that draw upon what Austin calls, 'the deep-rooted, grown-from-the-soil look of Pueblo buildings' to explore a proto-modernist softened geometry that reconciles nature and the built environment. The book's solid success at the height of the Depression (all 108 copies sold over two years at $75 a piece) encouraged Adams to continue in his course as a photographer of the American landscape" (Roth, 58). This limited edition is a faithful reproduction of that rare landmark. See Open Book, 88-89.

Fine condition.