“WINDOWS INTO REALITY”: LOUIS STETTNER’S WORKERS, 24 EXHIBITION-SIZE DUOTONES IN SCARCE ORIGINAL PORTFOLIO

STETTNER, Louis. Workers. Twenty Four Photographs. (New York: Stettner Studio), [1974]. Folio, original white portfolio, original four-page booklet, 24 loose duotones (each printed on heavy card stock and measuring 11 by 17 inches). $450.

First edition of Stettner’s celebration of American workers, with 24 exhibition-size duotones printed on heavy card stock, self-published by Stettner and housed in original folio portfolio.

Brooklyn-born Louis Stettner, one of New York’s most street-wise photographers, learned his craft from Brassaï and traveled frequently between his native city and Paris to create “black-and-white images [that] offer windows onto reality” (McDarrah, 474). As critic Jacob Deschin notes, here Stettner has advanced the “tradition of worker photography… by introducing an attitude intended to reveal the subject not as worker merely but as worker and personality.” Owner signature.

Plates fine, light dampstaining, rubbing, tiny creases to original portfolio. A near-fine copy.