“HE WAS THE FIRST. HE DID IT FIRST”: SCARCE FIRST EDITION OF MUNKACSI’S NUDES, 1951

MUNKACSI, Martin. Nudes. New York: Greenberg, 1951. Large quarto, original red cloth, original photographic dust jacket. $250.

First edition of Munkacsi’s innovative first photobook, “a new approach to the human body” (Frizot), with 71 photogravure plates (some double-page). From the collection of renowned photojournalist Peter Turnley.

“At his best Munkacsi was magnificent… self-taught, a creature of his own devising.” Born Marton Mermelstein in Hungary, Martin Munkacsi (1896-1963) became “one of the most celebrated photojournalists” in early 1930s Germany and after arriving in America, “reached a pinnacle of fame and fortune in New York… revolutionizing the American fashion magazine under Carmel Snow and Alexey Brodovitch at Harper’s Bazaar.” As seen here in Nudes, “Munkacsi brought to American photography technical innovations” from Europe’s Bauhaus school, as well as “a new approach to the human body… From now on, female bodies would be shown in action… displaying all the movement of real life” (Frizot, 546). At Munkacsi’s death, Richard Avedon wrote, “He was the first. He did it first… The art of Munkacsi lay in what he wanted life to be, and he wanted it to be splendid. And it was.” Cover designed by Alexey Brodovitch; technical data page at rear. From the collection of Peter Turnley, acclaimed photojournalist for Newsweek, Life and Harper’s Magazine, who has covered “almost every important international news event of the last 15 years” (New York Times); signed by Turnley.

Book fine, scarce, fragile dust jacket very good— rarely found intact. A memorable association copy.