Hartford, Connecticut, James Thrall Soby, 1934. . First edition with first issue title-page; folio (384 x 312 mm, 15 x 12¼ in); black-and-white photographs printed in gravure by The Néogravure Company, texts in English and French by Man Ray, Paul Eluard, Andre Breton, Tristan Tzara, Rrose Selavy [Marcel Duchamp]; colour photo-illustrated covers with a plastic comb binding by Draeger Frères, light wear, shallow crease to bottom corner upper side, rubbing, marking, and indentation to lower side and several end leaves, crease to top corner lower side, top and bottom tabs torn, a close to near-fine copy; [vi], 1-24, [2], 25-42, [2], 43-66, [2], 67-84, [2], 85-104, [2].
Man Ray's first monograph, with the scarce first issue title-page. James Thrall Soby was an important patron of the avant-garde in the United States. Alfred Barr, Director of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, had encouraged Soby to visit Man Ray in Paris, and following their meeting, Soby subsidised the production of this, the first monograph of Man Ray's work.
Man Ray had hoped that royalties from the sale of this book would enable him to make a long-overdue trip back to New York. Photographs... was well received in France, but in the United States, the reception was distinctly less enthusiastic. Lewis Mumford wrote in The New Yorker that Man Ray had 'done almost everything with a camera, except use it to take photographs... photographing Calla lilies so that they will look like drawings by a second-rate academician.' Commercially, it was not a success. It is widely suggested that in an attempt to generate sales, the publishers recalled the book and replaced the original title page with one stating 'deuxième édition'. The favourable reception in France also led to the 'second edition' being titled in French with attention drawn to the other contributors: Man Ray. Photographies 1920-1934 Paris avec un portrait par Picasso textes de André Breton Paul Eluard Rrose Sélavy Tristan Tzara préface par Man Ray.
Regards sur un siècle de photographie à travers le Livre 47; The Book of 101 Books: Seminal Photographic Books of the Twentieth Century pp80-1; 802 books from the Auer Collection p225; Paris, Les livres de photographies 1920-1950 pp148-51.
