MEMORABLE PRESENTATION/ASSOCIATION COPY OF RONIS’ DERRIÈRE L’OBJECTIF, INSCRIBED BY WILLY RONIS ON CHRISTMAS EVE TO CLOSE FRIEND, RENOWNED PHOTOGRAPHER PETER TURNLEY

RONIS, Willy. Derrière l'objectif de Willy Ronis. Photos et propos [Behind the Objectivity of Willy Ronis. Photographs and Thoughts]. (Paris): Hoëbeke, (2001). Quarto, original laminated stiff photographic wrappers. $950.

First edition, warmly inscribed by Ronis to close friend, award-winning photojournalist Peter Turnley, on Christmas Eve, “Pour Peter Turnley, ce petit témoignage, sur une manière, parmi d’autres, de sentir la photographie, Avec amitié! (“For Peter Turnley, this modest statement on an approach, among others, toward the sensibility of the photograph, with affection! Willy Ronis, Christmas Eve, 2006”), featuring over 250 photogravure plates and in-text images revealing the stories behind his famous photographs.

This unique association copy of Derrière l'objectif, in which Willy Ronis unveils the creative choices behind his life's work, is inscribed by him on Christmas Eve, in the same year he received the prestigious Lucie Award for Lifetime Achievement in photography. Ronis' remakable career began in the 1930s, when he covered the tumultuous years of the Popular Front with Robert Capa. Featured in MoMA's 1953 exhibit—Five French Photographers—along with Cartier-Bresson and Brassaï, Ronis quickly became "one of France's leading photographers" and Life Magazine's first French photographer (McDarrah & McDarrah, 390). Following WWII Ronis and photographers such as Doisneau, Boubat, Izis and Riboud came to mark a distinct period in European photography with their focus on the everyday: a particularly "lyric mode… a vision of the world that is singularly moving." Text in French. This scarce first edition is from the collection of Paris-based photojournalist Peter Turnley, who has covered "almost every important international news event of the last 15 years" for Newsweek and Harper's Magazine (New York Times).

A distinctive association copy in fine condition.