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Freger, Charles (Photographer) & Keating, Prosper (Contributor) : Empire: Portraits Photographiques Et Uniformes

Kehrer Heidelberg Berlin, Berlin, Germany, 2009

ISBN 287811342X

First Edition / First Printing. Fine in No Dust Jacket, As Issued. 180 pages. Collection of color portrait-photographs. One of the most important titles in the iconic series of "Portraits Photographiques et Uniformes". The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions, particularly the 2010 French Edition and the "Vis Voluntatis" Edition. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now rare. A brilliant production by Charles Freger: Oversize-volume format. Pictorial hard boards with gilt titles printed on the cover and spine, as issued. Photographs by Charles Freger. Text by Prosper Keating in the French original and felicitous English translation. Printed on pristine-white, thick coated stock paper in Berlin, Germany to the highest standards. The reproduction quality is exemplary in every respect. Without DJ, as issued. Presents Charles Freger's "Empire: Portraits Photographiques et Uniformes". Elaborately costumed national guards. Despite bearing the nostalgic trappings of the imperial nation-state, they finally symbolize themselves, as autonomously existing and self-justifying elite corps. The work of a brilliant portrait-photographer whose only possible equal is Rineke Dijkstra, the Freger Style is documentary PLUS portrait. His antecedent is August Sander, with an opposite twist: His portraits present not a national community (as Sander does) but the individuals who give a specific community its face and form. As such, his work is neither purely documentary or sociological. His emphasis on individual particularity repudiates nationalism as well as "globalization" and "the human family", the most cherished ideas of humanist-photojournalists (and corporations), as nothing more and nothing less than a myth. Instead, he suggests, human beings choose, almost innately, to identify with a much smaller community than the nation or the UN. With every seemingly exotic portrait, Freger poses the same provocative and compelling questions: Why do I choose to belong to a tribe? Why do I adhere to its rules? Why do I believe in the necessity of social cohesion? Why do I express myself through others? Freger reminds us that so-called personal identity is inconceivable without the notion of belonging to a community; ethnic and sexual minorities understand this instinctively better than anyone else. An absolute "must-have" title for Charles Freger collectors. This title is a contemporary photography classic. This is one of few copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing (published in 2009, with English translations) still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a pristine beauty. Please note: Copies available online are either the Second Edition (in French only) or the "Vis Voluntatis" Edition, both published in 2010. A rare copy thus. Lavishly illustrated with color plates. One of the most brilliant photographers of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER CHARLES FREGER TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 287811342X.

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