MECHTHILD OP GEN OORTH: BERLIN BERLIN

Dusseldorf, Germany: Graphic Design Thorsten Lonnecker, 2009. First Edition. First Printing.. Softcover. Fine/No Dust Jacket, As Issued.. Dusseldorf, Germany: Graphic Design Thorsten Lonnecker, 2009. Softcover. Fine/None, As Issued. First Edition/First Printing. 50 pages. Retrospective collection of photographs. One of Mechthild Op Gen Oorth's finest achievements. The first and only edition. Published in a small and limited print run as a softcover original only. The First Edition is now rare. An austerely elegant production by Graphic Design Thorsten Lonnecker: Oversize-volume format. Pictorial softcovers with titles on the cover and spine, as issued. Photographs and text by Mechthild Op Gen Oorth. Printed on pristine-white, thick coated stock paper in Dusselfdorf, Germany to the highest standards. Without DJ, as issued. Presents Mechthild Op Gen Oorth's "Berlin Berlin". Evocative, sepia-toned images of the beloved city, all of them taken in the first decade of the 21st century, yet somehow recall a much earlier, and more serene, time and place. "Her fine art photography is black-and-white and more important, is exclusively analogue [instead of digital camera]. Mechthild Op Gen Oorth trusts in the expressive nature of analogue images, in its constructive, creative process, and does not use any form of computer-image-editing technique. Her emphasis lies in the motives which are created without any casual context whatsoever, and thus distinguishes between the process of fine art photography and that of photo-journalism or commercial photography" (Publisher's blurb). Well, such disdain is rather unnecessary: None of these gossamer, soft-focussed images could possibly have been captured by the hard-edged, clarifying tendency of the digital camera. Mechthild's technical rigor and insistence on the analogue camera are consistent with her highly personal vision of, indeed hankering for (as her title unmistakably suggests), a Lost Berlin whose vestigial presence is her great subject. The images are (there is no other word) beautiful, speak eloquently for themselves, and for a city that has the irresistible pull of a dream. An absolute "must-have" title for Mechthild Op Gen Oorth collectors. This copy is very prominently and beautifully signed and inscribed in black ink-pen on the title page by the photographer: "With kind regards! Mechthild". It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. There is no recipient named. Laid-in is the Official Letter about the book (written on her letterhead stationery), also very prominently and beautifully signed and inscribed in blue ink-pen by her. This title is now collectible. As far as we know, this is the only such signed and inscribed copy of the First Edition/First Printing available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. A rare signed copy thus. </b></i> Lavishly illustrated with toned plates. One of the finest photographers of our time. A fine copy. .