THOMAS STRUTH

London, England: MACK Publishers, 2014. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. As New/No Dust Jacket, As Issued.. London, England: MACK Publishers, 2014. Hardcover. As New/None, As Issued. First Edition/First Printing. 42 pages. Retrospective collection of photographs. One of Thomas Struth's finest achievements. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. An austerely elegant production by MACK: Oversize-volume format. Purple cloth boards with white titles embossed on the cover and spine, as issued. Photographs by Thomas Struth. Essay by Ulrich Loock in the German original and felicitous English translation appended at the end. Printed on pristine-white, thick coated stock paper (for the images) and archival, purple-color stock paper (for the text) in the United Kingdom to the highest standards. The reproduction quality is outstanding in every respect. Without DJ, as issued. Published as part of the travelling exhibition, "This Place", held in 2014, curated by Frederic Brenner and participated in by twelve photographers, in order to document contemporary Israel and the West Bank. Presents "Thomas Struth". An eponymously titled (and indispensable) suite of photographs about a contentious subject, seen through the photographer's relentlessly detached gaze. "Brings together sixteen photographs of Israel and Israeli-occupied West Bank. Continues his practice of creating singular images, each within one of the strictly segregated subject-fields he has developed throughout his career: Street photographs, portraits, landscapes, and high technology. Each image carries the enduring complexity and visual distillation of human experience for which Struth is known. Approaching the sheer diversity and quiddity of the inhabited world, he attempts to represent what he has referred to as 'a particle of the conflict of the region', to photograph the political and social landscape" (Publisher's blurb). "Unified by strata of antitheses which reveal themselves as a matrix running through the work, as Struth attempts to grasp the circumscribed reality of a region where co-existence has failed, a reality that is, however, inaccessible to photography" (Ulrich Loock). It is easy to miss Loock's important point: Given what we have come to expect of the "cool" Struth-ian eye, the self-aware modesty of Struth's project is precisely what makes it unexpectedly moving - and a genuine contribution to Frederic Brenner's ambitious, multi-photographer project. He shows us Israel and the West Bank, but coolly and steadfastly refuses to make an overbearing or didactic comment on this very "hot" subject (as a "concerned" photographer might have done). An absolute "must-have" title for Thomas Struth collectors. This copy is very boldly and beautifully signed in pencil by Thomas Struth. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is a contemporary art photography classic. This is one of few such signed copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. A rare signed copy thus. 16 color plates. "Thomas Struth: Museum Photographs" was selected as one of the greatest photography books in "The Photobook". One of the most brilliant photographers of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER THOMAS STRUTH TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 1910164127.