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Rheims, Bettina (Photographer) & Bramly, Serge (Contributor) : Animal: Photographs By Bettina Rheims

Gina Kehayoff Verlag, Munich, Germany, 1994

ISBN 3929078198

First Edition / First Printing. Fine in Fine Dust Jacket. 57 pages. Landmark collection of portrait-photographs on subject. One of the most beautiful art photography books of our time. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions, particularly the "Art Data" Reissued Edition. The latter, called "Animals", was reissued four years later, in 1998. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now rare. A brilliant production by Bettina Rheims and Gina Kehayoff Verlag: Oversize-volume format. Salmon cloth boards with photographic reproduction pasted in front and titles on cover and spine, as issued. Photographs by Bettina Rheims. Essay by Serge Bramly. List of Plates appended at the end. Printed in duotone on pristine-white, thick uncoated stock paper in Germany to the highest standards. In protective glassine DJ, as issued. Presents Bettina Rheims' "Animal". Some of the most remarkable portraits of animals ever taken in our time. Known primarily as a celebrity, lifestyle, and female-nude photographer with a distinctive style, Rheims spent twelve years (between 1982 and 1994) taking these Minimalist portraits. Almost all major photographers have taken pictures of animals because they present a unique challenge to anyone who considers himself or herself a portrait artist. One of Warhol's finest works is his series called "Vanishing Animals", where he deployed his masterly silkscreen technique to produce breathtakingly beautiful animal-paintings. Garry Winogrand's "The Animals" is regarded as one of the greatest photography books of the 20th century. But it is to Peter Hujar that Bettina Rheims' own imagery alludes and must be compared. Hujar identified with animals and regarded his animal-portraits as self-portraits: They portray him as being like any other creature, vulnerable and defenseless. Rheims portrays her wide-ranging bestiary as though they were her fellow beings, Rheims' Ark. What will transfix the viewer is the way she captures their eyes. Whether it's a bird, elephant, dog, sheep, or tiger, and in an extended sequence, chimpanzees and an orangutan, the animals stare back at us, fierce, unblinking, and inquisitive in their gaze. An absolute "must-have" title for Bettina Rheims collectors. This copy is very boldly and beautifully signed in black pen-marker on the title page by Bettina Rheims. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is a contemporary photography classic. As far as we know, this is the only such signed copy of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a pristine beauty. A rare signed copy thus. 56 duotone plates. One of the most brilliant photographers of our time. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO PETER HUJAR TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 3929078198.

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