PIETER OMBREGT PHOTOGRAPHS: COLOR AND BLACK AND WHITE STUDIES

Oranje, Belgium: Drukkerij Oranje, 2008. First Edition. First Printing.. Softcover. Fine/No Dust Jacket, As Issued.. Oranje, Belgium: Drukkerij Oranje, 2008. Softcover. Fine/None, As Issued. First Edition/First Printing. Unpaginated. Retrospective collection of color and black-and-white photographs. One of the most brilliant art photography books of our time. The First Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a softcover original only. None of the copies was widely sold in the United States. The First Edition is now scarce. A brilliant production by Jennifer Kowalewski: Oversize-volume format. Pictorial softcovers with titles on the cover and spine, as issued. Photographs by Pieter Ombregt. Text by Karen Irvine. Printed on pristine-white, thick coated stock paper in Belgium to the highest standards. The reproduction quality is exemplary in every respect. Without DJ, as issued. Published on the occasion of the landmark exhibition of the same name held in Belgium in 2008/2009. Presents "Pieter Ombregt Photographs: Color And Black And White Studies". The remarkable body of work left behind by the young Belgian photographer who is indisputably the most prodigious graduate of Columbia College Chicago of his generation. Pieter Ombregt was a 27-year-old photographer at the time of his accidental death in 2007, who created mature work between 2003 and 2007 (between the ages of 23 and 27) of keen intelligence, rigor, and contemplative yet sensuous beauty. At its best, his work is Conceptual art that elicits a profound emotional response in the viewer. "The only publication detailing the meteoric artist's career before his untimely death at the age of 27. Marked by linear clarity and starkly contrasting tonalities. Ombregt's work shows viewers what the world can look like if they just slow down and really take a look around" (Publisher's blurb). The volume is in three parts: His "XYZ Series", a Symbolist-inspired sequence in color showing a man (Ombregt himself and a few friends) wearing the same prisoner's bright-orange jumpsuit while surveying the contemporary natural and man-made landscapes. Parts Two and Three consist of his works in black-and-white: Eerie, haunting, and often anguished portraits, the "closeups" to the XYZ Series' "long shots", which remind us that while Ombregt may have honed his camera technique in America, his artistic style remained, inescapably, European. He was, after all, a disciplined, physically active tournament cyclist who embraced the American extreme-sport lifestyle - he crashed during one such cycling event, and died shortly thereafter from his horrific injuries - yet, at the same time, could also write: "We are losing our ability to communicate and make ourselves comfortable around others. The day, as we compose it, has become a series of scheduled activities and not of perceptions. When we talk about our day, we talk about what we did or crammed in, not what we noticed or thought" (Pieter Ombregt). That is NOT something that would even occur to most (though not all) Americans, artists included, culturally ingrained to be un-reflective at all cost. An absolute "must-have" title for Pieter Ombregt collectors. This title is a contemporary art photography classic. As far as we know, this is the only copy available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. A rare copy thus. Lavishly illustrated with color and duotone plates. One of the most brilliant photographers of our time. A fine copy. . ISBN 9066612673.