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Swedlund, Charles (Photographer); Berlanga, Paul (Contributor) & Daiter, Stephen (Gallerist) : Firefighters, Chicago 1955: Photographs By Charles Swedlund

Only Photography, Berlin, Germany, 2015

First Edition / First Printing. As New in No Dust Jacket, As Issued. 61 pages. Retrospective collection of photographs, presented as an Artist Book. One of the most beautiful art photography books of our time. Limited Edition of 300 copies. The first and only edition. The book was distributed mainly in Europe, not sold commercially in the United States. The Limited Edition is now rare. An austerely elegant production by Roland Angst: Regular-sized volume format. Black hard boards with titles embossed on the cover, as issued. Elegant exposed spine. Photographs by Charles Swedlund. Text by Stephen Daiter. Artist Interview by Paul Berlanga. Printed in tritone on pristine-white, thick uncoated stock paper in Berlin, Germany to the highest standards. The reproduction quality is outstanding in every respect. Without DJ, as issued. Presents, in a Limited Edition format, Charles Swedlund's "Firefighters, Chicago Circa 1955". One of the most dramatic real-life, unposed photographic sequences of the 20th century. Some of the images first appeared in "Circa 55", a brilliant overview of the photographer's body of work and achievement. "Firefighters", which was Volume Two of "Circa 1955", is re-presented here in a different image-sequence (the publisher is well-known as an exemplary photography book-maker), a larger format, and with even more dazzling images, beautifully reproduced, of Swedlund's masterwork, published at last for the very first time. As such, "Firefighters" is unsurpassed in the history of the medium: Dynamic and powerful studies in chiaroscuro that are worthy of comparison with "Old Master" artists, but with an immediacy, even urgency that is entirely their own. "There are charms made only for distant admiration. Yet no spectacle is nobler than a blaze" (Samuel Johnson). Swedlund gets as close to the action as one could possibly be without becoming engulfed in flames, the lethal possibility that his firefighters confront with every conflagration, including those captured for posterity in these stunning images (that Dr. Johnson would surely have admired). "Swedlund shows himself to be THE quintessential photographer, dedicated to technical care and precision, harnessed to disciplined imagination, and aimed at seeing the world around us through what is revealed distinctively by the photograph" (Michael Weinstein). An absolute "must-have" title for Charles Swedlund collectors. This copy is one of the Limited Edition, indicated as such on the Back Limitation Page. It is very prominently, neatly, and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on the title page by Charles Swedlund. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is an art photography classic. As far as we know, this is the only such signed copy of the Limited Edition available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a pristine beauty. Please note: Swedlund did NOT sign most copies of the book. The latter was distributed mainly in Europe, not sold commercially in the United States. A rare signed copy thus. Lavishly illustrated with tritone plates. One of the most brilliant American photographers of the 20th century. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER CHARLES SWEDLUND TITLES IN OUR CATALOG).

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