VU Magazine Photo Reportage Photo-Press 1930s

Vu magazine edited by Lucien Vogel, published more than 600 issues from 1928 to 1940 and became "the week's illustrated journal". Vu (Seen) was the precursor to all the "picture magazines" that would follow including Berliner Zeitung Illustrierte, Life, Look, AIZ, as well as a few of the picture magazines published by both the axis and the allies during WWII. The regular weekly issues (like the one above) were augmented by special "hors series" issues which were unnumbered and have become the most desirable, photographically exploring and at times exploiting controversial topics. 

Photographic contributors include Germaine Krull, Brassai, Man Ray, Maurice Tabard, Andre Kertesz, Cartier-Bresson and Eli Lotar among many others. Art director, starting in 1932, was the legendary Alexandre Liberman. More about Vu here.

(above and below) Cover and feature of distorted photographs, similar to the work by Andre Kertesz at the time, but by an unknown photographer. 

Automobiles Special Issue 1934. Cover photograph by Man Ray.

Automobiles Special Issue 1930. Cover photograph by Maurice Tabard.

Mysteres et Miracles 1931 Special Issue.

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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

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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.

____________

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 Surrealist Postcard Set: Paris 1937

In January, 1938 the last of the International Surrealist Exhibitions took place in Paris at the Galerie des Beaux-Arts on the left bank. The exhibition, marking the end of the first generation of surrealism in Paris, included more than 60 international artists: Salvador Dali, Marcel Jean, Oscar Dominquez, Man Ray, Andre Masson, Wolfgang Paalen, Max Ernst, Kurt Seligmann, Marcel Duchamp et al; and organized by Andre Breton and Paul Eluard. The exhibition, which scandalized many who attended, contributed numerous iconic images that are an integral part of the surrealist canon.

______________________

Illustration at the top: postcard number 1 ~ Marcel Duchamp 

Ampoule contenant 50 c.c. l'Air de Paris

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Prior to the exhibition in 1937, Georges Hugnet, celebrated surrealist artist, editor and publisher, invited artists participating in the exhibition to contribute artworks for a set of postcards he planned to published. The result was the set of twenty-one Cartes Surrealiste, Premiere Series (there was never a deuxieme series) published by Hugnet in 1937. Hugnet is best known for his extraordinary collages published in two rare and sought after surrealist books. Le Septieme Face du De (Paris, 1936) and A Huit Jours a Trebeaumec (Paris, 1968). Huit Jours was published as a facsimile of a Micheline Guide for the Bretagne region, the title being a play on words of an imaginary town, Trebeaumec i.e. "a very handsome guy".

Collage from Septieme Face du De (The Seventh Face of the Die), 1936

Cover of Huit Jours a Trebeaumec, 1968

________________

Background: my first encounter with the surrealist set known to Parisian 

postcard dealers as "les vingt et un", circa late 1980s

My earliest days in Paris as a dealer, starting in 1984, were focused on rare, unusual and out-of-print books related to all aspects of photography and the cinema. Prior to becoming a dealer I was a collector for tens years and a part of my collection included American postcards, the type which might have amused Walker Evans: diners, roadside attractions, gas stations, highways and byways, real photo street scenes of small rural towns lined with businesses and cars parked head-in at the curb. Arriving in Paris after my first few buying trips, postcards gained my attention and by late 1985 I was hooked by the variety of European postcards, especially the classic "French postcards" depicting risque and nude images.

 

\

(from the top, clockwise) blue, letter press printed label; card number 6 ~ Joan Miro; typical back; card number 7 ~ Salvador Dali

________________

Once the Parisian doors opened to vintage postcards, the flood of material never subsided and each buying trip lead to other areas of interest. In those early days I was offered a surrealist set, and not knowing what its value was, I declined the offer. A few years later I was a willing buyer when a dealer, the successor  to Andre Gonthier, a pioneer in the field of postcards and one of the foremost Parisian postcard dealers and collectors, offered me not one, but multiple sets in yellow, pink and blue, the "official" surrealist colors.

(clockwise from upper left) card number 14 ~ Meret Oppenheim; card number 21 ~ Pablo Picasso; card number 17 ~ Roland Penrose; card number 18 ~ Marcel Jean

___________________

That day, as I considered the deal, it was getting to be 1:00pm and as was usual during my meetings with this dealer it was time to lock the shop, pull the metal grate halfway down the storefront and go to lunch. We crossed the street to the unnamed Arab restaurant directly opposite his shop on the narrow street. It could not have been any closer and also gave him a clear view across the street should any unexpected clients show up at his door. Most visitors  understood that the half closed gate indicated he was across the street. I came to learn after a few years of buying trips to Paris that shop owners, from the lowest "brocanteurs" (junk dealers) to the most sophisticated art gallery owners i) always broke for lunch and ii) sought out the restaurant closest to their business with the best food and ate lunch there every day.

(clockwise from upper left) card number 2 ~ Andre Breton; card number 8 ~ Hans Bellmer; card number 5 ~ Dora Maar; card number 4 ~ Paul Eluard

__________________

Over lunch, Jacques Maillet the dealer now in charge of the ABC Gonthier postcard shop since the sudden death of Madame Gonthier and the subsequent retirement of her husband Andre, told me the story of "le vingt et un". An unnamed bookseller, on what was once "book row" on the rue de Seine on Paris' left bank, had a cache of the surrealist sets, all like new from the printer. In  the late 1970's he approached a few potential buyers in the book trade. None were interested. Eventually the word arrived at Gontier's door that "les vingt et un" was available in quantity. He sent a young assistant to investigate (Marc Lefevre later to become one of the leading postcard dealers) and later that day he arrived back at the shop with all the available sets. As many as 30 sets were stored, undisturbed in the back room of Gonthier's small shop on the rue Richard Lenoir, until the late 1980's.

(clockwise from upper left) card number 3 ~ Max Ernst; card number 12 ~ Hans Arp; card number 10 ~ Yves Tanguy; card number 9 ~ Man Ray

_________________

With our mechoui and cous-cous lunch complete, Jacques finished relating the details of the story. He knew that all the available sets, other than the ones he had already sold to other dealers and collectors, were in his possession. Convinced as I was years earlier that Jacques and this small shop, though always dirty, the unwashed windows clouded by years of cigarette smoke, was the real deal, I purchased my first three sets, one in each of the surrealist colors! Over the years I would sell a set and buy a set, until one day, when I asked for another set, his reply was "desole, tout vendu" - sorry all sold. 

(clockwise from upper left) card number 20 ~ Nusch Eluard; card number 16 ~ Jacqueline Breton; card number 15 ~ Rene Magritte; card number 19 ~ Wolfgang Palen

(clockwise from the left) card number 13 ~ Georges Hugnet; card number 1 ~ Marcel Duchamp; card number 11 ~ Oscar Dominguez

Card number 11 ~ Oscar Dominguez
Ouverture / Opening

__________

Link to eBay store at the top of the page

vasta@earthlink.net

@vasta_archives

NU ~ NUS ~ NUES ~ NUDES

Prior to starting my collection of photography books (circa 1973 in New York) the only exposure I had to the 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". 

A few years into collecting I found two or three volumes 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 of photography books. That is where I saw NUS, edited by Daniel Masclet, for the first time. I had to have it for the growing part 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. On 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!) the title 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's post: an homage to le NU ~ NUS ~ NUES /  NUDE ~ NUDES ~ NAKED

eBay store

  

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 and 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 illustrations 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 photographs of 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.

vasta@earthlink.net