Description

RARE PRESENTATION/ASSOCIATION COPY OF THE FACE OF ASIA,
INSCRIBED BY CARTIER-BRESSON TO CLOSE FRIEND,
RENOWNED PHOTOJOURNALIST PETER TURNLEY

CARTIER-BRESSON, Henri. The Face of Asia. New York: Viking, (1972). Quarto, original black cloth, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom clamshell box.

First edition, warmly inscribed on the title page by Cartier-Bresson to longtime friend, fellow photojournalist Peter Turnley, “a Amy et Peter Turnley, trés cordialement, Henri Cartier-Bresson,” featuring 119 photogravures by Cartier-Bresson, “the archetype of the itinerant photojournalist” (New York Times).

Henri Cartier-Bresson was already established as “one of the world’s most important photographers” when he co-founded Magnum Photos in 1947 (Parr & Badger I:189). “Under its aegis, Cartier-Bresson went to China, India, Indonesia, Egypt, Cuba and the Soviet Union? [where] he tried to immerse himself in places before photographing them, to blend into and learn about their cultures? The archetype of the itinerant photojournalist,” Cartier-Bresson collected images from travels that spanned a decade, from 1957-66, to produce The Face of Asia, a work that captures his ability “pinpoint the movements and effects of history in specific small incidents and in the faces and gestures of ordinary people” (New York Times). Published same year as first edition in French, Visage d’Asie, no priority established. Introduction by Robert Shaplen. This copy from the private collection of award-winning Newsweek photojournalist Peter Turnley, inscribed by Cartier-Bresson in February 2000, when Turnley and his wife visited him in his Paris apartment. Owner signature.

Images clean and fresh, minimal rubbing to corners of original cloth; light edge-wear, minor tape reinforcement to verso of bright, price-clipped dust jacket. An important, near-fine copy with a memorable association.