“ONE OF THE MOST EXTRAORDINARY PHOTOGRAPHERS AND POWERFUL ARTISTS OF THE 20TH CENTURY”

KOUDELKA, Josef. Gypsies. (New York): Aperture, (1975). Oblong quarto, original debossed brown cloth, original photographic dust jacket. $1350.

First edition in English of Koudelka’s first photobook, the work that “sealed Koudelka’s reputation” (Parr & Badger), featuring 60 powerful black-and-white photogravure plates.

"It was through Gypsies [Gitans] that Josef Koudelka first became known in the Western world… His work with the gypsies, conducted between 1962 and 1970, played a decisive, although by nature unpredictable role in the formation of Koudelka as a photographer… a human symbiosis provoked by a camera" (Frizot, Koudelka, 65). Published simultaneously in France by Delpire as Gitans, Koudelka's first photobook "sealed his reputation as one of the finest photographers still utilizing the humanist documentary mode" (Parr & Badger II:230). "One of the most extraordinary photographers and powerful artists of the 20th century" (Afterimage), Koudelka offers a vision both "melodramatic and tragic, serious in the best sense of the word" (Parr & Badger II:230). Published same year the photographer was honored with a one-man exhibit at MoMA. With essay by Willy Guy. Open Book, 304.

Book fine; edge-wear, closed tears to bright, very good dust jacket.