“THE SIMPLICITY OF GREAT ART”: EARLY JOYS, INSCRIBED BY LOUIS STETTNER

STETTNER, Louis. Early Joys. Photographs from 1947-1972. (New York: Janet Iffland, 1987). Large square quarto, original gray cloth, original photographic dust jacket. $550.

First trade edition, boldly inscribed by Stettner on the copyright page, “Louis Stettner, March 1990,” featuring an introduction by Brassaï and 56 striking black-and-white photogravure plates.

“A consummate street photographer in the Cartier-Bresson, Atget and, well, Weegee tradition, Louis Stettner has worked New York and Paris with his camera for many decades” (New York Times). This handsome retrospective features 56 large photogravure plates covering three decades of Stettner’s art, from early years, when the Brooklyn-born Stettner moved to Paris, to the 1970s. Brassaï, impressed with the photographer’s “black-and-white images offering windows onto reality… aided Stettner in publishing his work” (McDarrah, 474). In this volume’s introduction, Brassaï calls Stettner a photographer who reveals the world “with utmost accuracy and the simplicity of great art.” First trade edition, published coincident with signed limited edition of 500 and 20 additional copies containing an original print: no priority established.

Book fine; small chip to spine head, light abrasion to rear panel of bright dust jacket. A near-fine copy, scarce signed.