1939-1962 Photographs.

£750 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books

ONE OF A SMALL NUMBER BOUND IN CLOTH FOR PRIVATE DISTRIBUTION Issued as Aperture 10:4, this is one of a small number of copies that Minor White had bound for Sommer to distribute privately. When asked recently, the Frederick Sommer Estate said that they had no specific documentation regarding the number of copies that were bound this way, but added that they would be surprised if it were more than 50. In December 1961, Minor White invited Frederick Sommer to contribute his work to an entire issue, despite reservations from Ansel Adams, who felt that some advertisers might not approve of Sommer's images of 'dismemberment.' In a letter dated 27 December 1961, White asks that all copy and photographs be completed by 1 October 1962, and suggests, 'This way it can be used as a catalog for the exhibition [at the Art Institute of Chicago, March 9-April 7, 1963]... if necessary, you should go back and reprint significant pictures of your past. I know that you hate to reprint, and I don't blame you, but this should not stand in the way of the pictures that illustrate [a] turning point or stages of achievement.' Sommer designed, edited and sequenced this issue, which consisted of thirty of his photographs alongside his poetry and prose. No other issues of Aperture were published in 1963, which was the year it became a non-profit foundation. David Levi Strauss writes that 'with the exception of White's 'quirky, disjointed, and defensive' editor's note and David Campbell's portrait of So

• Binding: Hardcover

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