The Body Beautiful: Five Volumes New York 1930s

The contribution made by Americans to the bibliography on the body, its form and figure in photography, is almost non-existent until the 1930s when a number of small "art photography" publishers begin to explore the genre. Without precedent in the US, the Dodge Publishing Company in New York City, set an extremely high standard in 1935 with the first of its five volume series, THE BODY BEAUTIFUL. Above, the cover of volume one.

In retrospect, only a few American books on the subject of the nude would ever come close to the quality of this five volume set published from 1935 to 1939. These spiral bound collections of nudes were beautifully printed in fine gravure, rivaling the quality of production, typography and page design as well as compositional and experimentation as some of the noteworthy European publications of this period.  Daniel Masclet’s NUS La Beaute de la Femme and the PHOTOGRAPHIE Annuals published by Arts et Metiers Graphique in Paris may have inspired the editor of the series, Heywood Campbell, and his designers.

 Solarized nude, homage to Man Ray?

Each volume with approx. 80 photographs. Contributions, many in an experimental or avant-garde style, include William Rittase, Lejaren a Hiller, Frank Frapie, Ruth Bernhard, Alexander Allard, Remie Lohse, Forman Hanna, Pierre Boucher, Alexander Paal, Heinz Perckhammer, John Everard, Aaron Siskind, Lusha Nelson, Arnold Genthe, Bertram Park, Hajek-Halke and many others.

The overall size 8.75" x 11.75"; each volume spiral bound, published in a box with die-cut top revealing a portion of the cover photograph. These exceptional books are rarely seen, especially as a complete set and in such fine condition as those shown in this post.

Exceptional use of the two-page spread incorporating the spiral binding; photograph shifted to the left edge to create a white band on the right side as a design element. Note placement of the copy and the page number.

Double exposure/composite image by Lejaren a Hiller.

 Marvelous full-color photograph gracing the cover of volume three.

Literally tipping the photograph on edge, creating a dynamic of blacks on white  in contrast to the smaller image "forced" into the upper right corner with bleeds on two sides. Note the effectiveness of the spiral binding as part of the layout.

One of the few male nudes in the series.

Cover volume four. Wonderful camera/eye design: signed Hawkins.

 Simple, expansive image used as the title page for volume four with the typography centered over the nude figure. Letter and word spacing fits 
nicely with the volume of the photograph.

 Implying the motion of a dive. The black and white spaces and the sharp angles of the photo on the right create a brilliant spread. Once again the spiral binding is used as a design device.

 Nude dancers, flying. Inspired by Riebicke or Munkacsi or both.

 Photograph by Heinz Hajek-Halke. Superb montage of the same image: one reversed and placed over the other creating a "black" and a "white" image.

 Another exceptional cover design of montaged images by Hawkins.

 Ignoring and crossing the "centerline" to create a square, bleed image in a rectangular world. The white space and tall rectangular image is quite unusual page design as well.

Nude portrait, beautifully echoing the cover photograph of Sasha Stone's classic FEMMES published in Paris 1933.

Surreal photograph by Pierre Boucher, bleeding all four edges. 

_______________

eBay store link at top of the page

vasta@earthlink.net

@vasta_archives

Tinted Beauties: Hand-Tinted Art Deco Postcard Nudes

 

Tinted Beauties: Hand-Tinted Art Deco Postcard Nudes

At lunch with Alexandre Dupouy and his wife Jocelyne, in June 2009, he asked if I had any "tinted nudes". He was referring to hand-tinted, real photo postcard nudes published in Paris circa 1920 ~ 1930. He showed me a few he had in his pocket, just purchased hours before at Carte Expo, the Paris postcard show. "Yes" I said, I have a good selection of them in my inventory as well as an excellent personal collection. He seemed at first skeptical, but when I assured him that I was not kidding, he said "I want to see them".

A few days later I returned to New York and emailed scans to Paris. Within days we agreed to do a book of "tinted nudes" the result of which is Beautes Teintees, published by Editions Astarte at the end of December, 2009. The book, filled with over 100 marvelous hand-tinted nudes, the majority coming from my personal collection with additional images from Alexandre. They epitomizing the art-deco style era of the nude in Paris.

The book includes a short text written by me in English, translated in Paris to French and edited with corrections here in New York. In brief, each of the images starts as a "standard" warm or sepia toned real photo postcard card (rppc). The coloring is then applied by hand, using brushes, air-brush and stencils (pochoirs) directly on the surface of the photographs, allowing the original sepia flesh tones to stand out against the stylized, art deco backgrounds.

A selection of hand-tinted nudes, most of which appear in the book, follows, without captions and in no particular order. 

__________

eBay store link at the top of the page

vasta@earthlink.net

@vasta_archives

NU ~ NUS ~ NUES ~ NUDES

 

NU ~ NUS ~ NUES ~ NUDES

Prior to starting my collection of photography books (circa 1973 in New York) the only exposure I had to the French word "nus" was in an ad at the back of an early 1960s American men's magazine: "Exotic French books (in the ad, an illustration of NUS covers, including the Andre de Deines color cover below) imported directly from Paris". The ad was very appealing, but who knew what you would get after responding to a girlie magazine ad. 

A few years into collecting I found two or three different issues of NUS and was pleasantly surprised to see that they were filled with exceptional photographs, beautifully printed with full-page gravures of female nudes. 

Fast forwarding about five years, as my collection was growing, I starting attending auctions for photography books. That is where I saw NUS, edited by Daniel Masclet, for the first time. I had to have it for the growing portion of my collection concerning books on the nude, but it was more than I could afford and I dropped out of the bidding. Fast forward again to my early days in Paris, circa 1985. 

During one trip that year, at a bouquinistes stall on the left bank, there was NUS, seemingly waiting for me. It was wrapped in heavy plastic, taped shut like a parcel ready to be mailed, 40F (forty francs - at the time $4.00!) written in bold black marker on the front. I should say "they were wrapped..." as there were four or five copies of this, up until that moment, rare book, presented as a 50 plus years old "remainder" on the quai in Paris. 

I bought the three copies that looked like they had just arrived fresh from the publisher (left behind the copies that were a bit damaged) and got my 10% percent discount to boot. Over the years I bought as many copies as I could find in and around the quai, the price inching up to 100F. Then, like all desirable remaindered books, they disappeared. 

Years later they began reappearing in the windows of better book shops for 250F and up. When the euro was introduced in 2002 and prices for all consumer goods took a big jump, the price was 250/300 Euros. Today you can find copies on-line starting at $1,200.00 and up to $2,500.00. Realistic price is $750.00. I'd like a few more of those copies wrapped in plastic...please!

Today's post: an homage to le NU ~ NUS ~ NUES ~~ NUDE ~ NUDES ~ NAKED

 

The first modern French book of the nude to be published in Paris was Daniel Masclet's NUS with stunningly simple typography on the cover plus 

burgundy colored tie-binding. NUS. La Beaute de la Femme. Album du Premier Salon International du Nus Photographique. Published by Chez Braun, edited by Daniel Masclet. Paris, 1933. 

Includes photographs by Laure Albin Guillot, Pierre Boucher, Frantisek Drtikol, Andréas Feinenger, Emil-Otto Hoppe, Moholy-Nagy, George Platt Lynes, Man Ray, Marcel Meys and others.

Formes Nues. Albert Mentzel, Albert Roux (Editors): Paris: Editions d'Art Graphique et Photographique, 1935. Text in English, French, and German. Folio size with spiral binding.  Cover photograph by Man Ray. 

Ninety-six full-page photographs plus twenty-two pages of text in French, German and English. Beautifully printed in gravure including photographs by 

Laure Albin-Guillot, Pierre Boucher, Brassai, Louis Caillaud, Frantisek Drtikol, 

Nora Dumas, Andreas Feininger, Raoul Hausmann, John Havinden, Florence Henri, Andre Kertesz, Edmund Kesting, Ergy Landau, Jacques Lemare, Herbert List, Kefer-Dora Maar, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, George Platt Lynes, Therese Le Prat, Man Ray, Franz Roh, Maurice Tabard, Maurice P. Verneuil and others.

Etudes de Nus. Editions du Chene. Paris, 1948. Beautifully printed in gravure, folio size publication with 24 photographs on plates, loose in the wrapper, ready to be framed. Includes female nudes by Brassai, Nora Dumas, Feher, Pierre Jahan, Ergy Landau, Liu-Shu-Chang, Philippe Pottier, Jeanne Robert, Seeberger and Sougez. 

Le Nu en Photographie. Marcel Natkin. Paris, 1949. Photographs by Man Ray, Pierre Jahan, Pierre Boucher, Brassai and Emmanuel Sougez.

 NUS Academics Dans La Nature. En Relief par les Anaglyphes.

Paris, circa 1935. Nudes outdoors photographed in 3-D

 _________

The following seven cover photographs are from the NUS series published in Paris starting in 1949. The series was numerically consistent until volume 4 or 5.  At that point the serial information was dropped and then restarted a few years later making it impossible to figure out the correct publishing sequence. Nonetheless, the quality of each volume was always consistently high, impeccably printed in full-page gravure and filled with images by some of the best photographers working in the genre. The series ended circa 1960. 

 NUS. Photos Originales d'Andre de Deines. Paris: Societe Parisienne d'Editions Artistiques, circa 1949. De Deines was noted for posing his models outdoors and was one of the first to photograph Marilyn Monroe.

 NUS Exotiques. Photos by Paul Facchetti. Paris: Societe Parisienne d'Editions 

Artistiques, circa 1949. Unique in the series featuring black models.

 NUS. Photographies Originales d'Andre de Deines. Paris: Societe 

Parisienne d'Editions Artistiques, circa 1949. 

 NUS par Andre Steiner. Paris: published not indicated, 1953.

All photographs by Andre Steiner. 

Nus Academiques. Paris: Societe Parisienne d'Editions 

Artistiques, circa 1950. Collection of female nudes by

various photographers.

Etudes de Nus par Andre Steiner. Paris: Editions Tiranty, circa 1952.

All photographs by Andre Steiner.

NUS. Ondines. Photographies par Serge Jacques. Paris: Editions 

Mistral, circa 1950. Sixteen plates loose in the wrapper, ready to be framed.

Le Nu International. Paris, 1954. Preface by Pierre Mac Orlan. Edited by Otto Steinert, the force behind the then emerging "subjective fotografie" movement in Germany. This is the French edition of Akt Internationale published one year earlier. Exceptional collection of avant-garde, experimental and conventional nudes, printed in fine gravure including Berko, Brassai, Fukuda, Hajek-Halke, Henle, Landau, List, Masclet (in homage as recognition for his classic NUS published 20 years prior?), Schall, Strache, Edward Weston and others.

____________

eBay store link at top of page

vasta@earthlink.net

@vasta_archives