Search Results: Photography from Bernett Penka Rare Books LLC

Warsaw: Wydawnictwo "Prasa Wojskowa", 1949. Large octavo (26.4 × 18.3 cm). Original photo-illustrated staple-stitched self-wrappers; 31, [1] pp. First leaf with recent tape repair to upper corner; a few nicks; still about very good. Surprisingly scarce account of the Battle of Stalingrad, photo-illustrated and with numerous striking photomontages by Mieczysław Berman, printed in black and red. Berman's early work was largely inspired by Dada and Constructivism. Under the influence of John Heartfield and the Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung (AIZ) he gradually turned to overtly political photomontage and created his famous anti-Nazi photomontage works. After the end of WWII, the country was increasingly under Soviet rule by proxy. Even though the Polish People's Republic was not created until 1952, the 1947 election marked the undisputed dominance of the communists, and in 1949, the Soviet Marshal Rokossovsky was named Minister of National Defense, which may explain the publication of the present… Read More

Beograd: Vremia (Izdanie N. P. Rklitskago), 1929. Oblong octavo (14 × 19 cm). Original printed wrappers; [16] leaves of photographs to rectos. Stain to wrappers; trace of spine label; else good. Booklet of sixteen photographs documenting the funerary procession and dignitaries, following the arrival and burial of the remains of General Petr Vrangel' (1878-1928), the former commander of the Russian White Army in Southern Russia. He died and was buried in Brussels, but following his wishes, his body was laid to rest at the Russian Church in Belgarde, Church of the Holy Trinity. Earlier in the 1920s, Vrangel' had lived and worked in Serbia, where he had sought to create a worldwide organization of Russian military men in exile, to prepare for a future struggle against the Bolshevik rulers. As of July 2022, KVK, OCLC show the copies at UC Berkeley, UNC Chapel Hill (Savine Collection), and Stanford.

Prague: Československé filmové nakladatelství. 1947. Octavo (21 × 14.8 cm). Original photomontage wrappers by Zdeněk Rossmann over blind wrapper; 207, [8] pp. Frequent underlining and a few annotations in pencil; else about very good. A curious later work by Zdeněk Rossmann, the Bauhaus-trained Czech graphic designer, photographer, and art teacher who was associated with DAV in Bratislava and later worked in Brno, Moravia. Third edition of this technical work on film acoustics. Not in Toman. As of September 2020, KVK and OCLC only show one copy in North America.

Leipzig: Bibliographisches Institut, [1930]. Octavo (18.5 × 12.5 cm). Original pictorial wrappers; 364 pp. Original photomontage and typographically illustrated wrappers by Jan Tschichold. Very minor soiling and edgewear. Ex-libris copy with rubber stamps to title page ("Karl Eidiner, Ingenieur"). Scarce work on American industry and laborers as seen from the perspective of a Frenchman, being the 1930 German edition of the 1929 original in French titled Standards - Le Travail Américain vu par un Ouvrier Français, detailing Dubreuil's own experiences working in American factories in 1927 and 1928, where he was impressed by the organization of the work and the standard of living of the American worker, as well as the collaborative and less typically hierarchical climate he encountered in American businesses. Dubreuil was a trade unionist and member of the CGT (Confédération Génerale du Travail) who in 1912 became Secretary of l'Union des ouvriers mécanicien da la Seine, then Secretary General,… Read More

Prague: Barrandov Film Studio, 1971. Oblong octavo (23 × 25.8 cm). Original printed dust wrappers over blind paper wrappers; [92] pp. Dust wrapper lightly discolored; else very good. Photo-illustrated album showcasing twenty-five years of work in the nationalized Barrandov Film Studios in Prague. Full-page black-and-white photographs are interspersed with text on the studio's history, current production, technological equipment, and Czechoslovak television production, in English, French, German, and Russian. Also includes a list of films produced jointly with foreign studios. The Czech Barrandov studios were founded in the early 1930s; they were nationalized until 1990 under Communist rule and developed to one of Europe's largest studio complexes. It was also the site where a series of films classed among the Czechoslovak New Wave were created, by directors such as Milos Forman, Jiri Menzel, and Jan Nemec. KVK, OCLC show a single copy, at the British Library.

Unpaginated photobook dedicated "allen noch lebenden Widerstandskämpfern des Dritten Reiches", comprised of approximately 29 black-and-white images from the funeral of three members of the RAF, each accompanied by a short explanatory text on the opposite page, with some pages of just text taken from contemporary newspaper reports, the images depicting the open graves and graveside before and during the funeral, as it becomes a public spectacle and the cemetery fills with spectators and media. Oblong 8vo. Original photo-illustrated wrpps., some slight soiling to cover, very minor wear to edges and spine, overall very good. Hannover (Internationalismus) 1977. On October 27th, 1977, photographer Max Dans attended the funeral of Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, and Jan-Carl Raspe, three founders and leaders of the RAF (Roten Armee Fraktion) who allegedly committed collective suicide while in prison. They were jailed for allegedly orchestrating several bombings, which caused the deaths of four people. Most… Read More

Geneva: Verlag "Meister der Baukunst," 1931. Octavo (20.5 × 16.8 cm). Original decorative cloth; XX pp. of text, 46 pp. of plates on coated stock. Illustration, plans. Signed and inscribed (addressee illegible) by Málnai. Boards lightly rubbed and discolored; about very good. First and only edition of this illustrated monograph on the Jewish Hungarian architect Béla Málnai (1878-1941). The author of the introduction (printed in both German and English) was the Hungarian journalist, art critic and writer Pál Relle (1883-1955), himself a trained architect. Best known for the design of the Czech-Hungarian Industrial Bank building in Budapest in 1912, Málnai went through a secessionist and Art Nouveau phase, before returning to a neo-historicist and neo-Baroque style, in which he constructed most of his buildings. Some of his later works, such as the Ellinger Villa built in 1936, is reminiscent of the Bauhaus. As of April 2023, KVK, OCLC show eleven copies in North America.

A fascinating and unique World War I German Red Cross hospital train photograph album, with an accordion-folded sheet the length of 10 pages, containing the title page, 8-leaf colored blueprint of the layout of the train, and 1-page description of the layout, followed by 11 original photographs, 9 of which show interior views and furnishings of the train, including the hospital cars (Krankenwagen), a hospital car specifically for officers (Offiziers-Krankenwagen), a bandaging car (Verbandswagen), the kitchen (Küche), an administration and pharmacy car (Operations - u. Apothekenwagen), the nurses' dining room (Speisezimmer für Schwestern), a doctor's room (Arztzimmer), and two exterior views, one with the Lloyd factory in the background, and one with the Lloyd liner "Bremen". Some slight browning to mattes some wear along binding, images very fine. Small oblong 4to. Metal brad binding inside a floral cloth-covered album, "Bremer Lazarettzuge" impressed in gold to lower front right corner, appliqued… Read More

Prague: Aventinum, 1928. Octavo (19.5 × 13.5 cm). Original pictorial wrappers by František Muzika; 147 pp. A very good, uncut and unopened copy; very light wear to lower spine only. Although less well-known than Teige, Štyrský, and Sutnar, Muzika (1900-1074) was a key representative of the Czech avant-garde and a founding member of Devětsil. Active in a wide range of media and other endeavors, including painting, graphic design, set design, illustration, directing, and teaching, Muzika also created a range of experimental book covers beginning in the late 1920s. He served as art director of the publishing house "Aventinum," adding his own covers which "in their simplicity and use of white space ... represent a distinct step beyond the rich poetist cover" (Jindřich Toman, Photo/Montage in Print, p. 197). Our copy is number 16 of twenty numbered copies printed on thick laid paper. Toman 5.5.1. As of June 2020, KVK and OCLC only show the copy in the Czech Republic.

Prague: Bratří Šulcové, ca. 1928. Octavo (18 × 13 cm). Single folded leaf, [4] pp. With striking photo-montage compositions to first and last page, and advertising text to pp. 2 and 3. Lower right corner very lightly creased; else very good. Scarce leaflet announcing BSA motorcycles, with urban streetscapes evocatively conveyed using photomontage design. The design to the rear wrapper features the text "Don't walk on foot, ride a BSA." For more on Czech interwar photo-montage, see also Jindřich Toman, Foto/montáž tiskem. Photo/Montage in Print. This title not in Toman. As of May 2020, KVK and OCLC only locate one institutional holding.

St. Petersburg: Studio of Adolf Otsup, 1902. Original albumen print, 10.5 × 6.5 cm, mounted on card and inscribed to verso. [A Russian Bylina Singer on Tour]. Carte-de-visite photograph of Ivan Trofimovich Riabinin (1833-1910), a peasant from the Olonets Governorate in Russia's North-West. Both Ivan Trofimovich and his father, Trofim Grigor'evich Riabinin, were part of a dynasty of bylina chanters, who preserved and transmitted these ancient Russian epic songs. Known both for commanding an extraordinary range of songs (Ivan Trofimovich was said to know over sixty thousand texts) and for their idiosyncratic performances, they were referred to as "storytellers" [skaziteli]. When interest in the bylina developed in the early nineteenth century, it was believed that the tradition was lost, until the discovery of Trofim Riabinin. Scholars carefully sturied his repertoire and Mussorgsky himself captured the melodies of his performances. Beginning in 1892, the younger Riabinin toured the Russian Empire, as… Read More

Various locations, circa 1921. Photographs 8.5 x 14 cm, album 28 x 20 cm. Fifty black and white photographs housed in a navy blue binder with "First Day Covers" stamped in gold to title and spine, with corresponding blue cardboard slipcase. Some slight creasing and light staining, overall about very good. Collection of 50 original black and white photographs of daily life in Alaska circa 1921, many with handwritten notations or captions to versos in pencil. Locations depicted in the photographs include Nenana, Eagle, Ketchikan, Fort Yukon, Fairbanks, Copper Center, the Klondike and the Yukon. The photographs depict the Valdez Trail, Gold Rush-era buildings, Indigenous peoples, riverboats, automobiles, panning for gold, a totem pole, the Yukon railroad, and other views. The 1890's marked the first period of large-scale non-Native population growth in Alaska, corresponding to the first discoveries of gold in the Klondike region of the Yukon territory. Although population growth dropped off after gold… Read More

Prague: Fr. Borový, 1940. Quarto (28 × 20.9 cm). Original pictorial half cloth with original pictorial dust jacket by Karel Teige; 93, [6] pp. With numerous illustrations and reproductions of photographs by Karel Ćapek, some of them full-page. Except for a few light foxing spots on the flaps of the dust jacket, on the endpapers and the slipcase, about very good. 12th edition of the famous children's photo book. See Srp 404 (1933).

Prague: Večernice, 1922. Large octavo (24 × 16 cm). Original decorative wrappers on dark green paper stock; 202, [6] pp. Numerous leaves of plates and reproductions in the text. A very good, entirely unrestored copy; light fading to left edge and tiny chip to lower right corner. A particularly handsome copy of this legendary first Devětsil publication (relatively cheaply printed and often encountered in poor condition), with typography by Karel Teige (the design using the black circle is repeated on the rear wrapper, with additional text, and on the ffep and title). The almanac was the result, in part, of Seifert and Teige's soujourn to Paris in 1922, where they met numerous key figures of the avant-garde world, such as Le Corbusier and Man Ray. The anthology reflects this new orientation away from both Soviet Proletkult aesthetics and the Czech expressionist scene, and towards a more exciting international avant-garde aesthetics encompassing a wide range of media and disciplines. With… Read More

Renger-Patzsch. 22 pp. introd. by Carl Georg Heise, list of plates, and 100 superb plates reproducing photographs by Renger-Patzsch showing landscapes, portraits, industrial motifs, architecture, animals, etc. 4to. Cloth, sl. shaken, backstrip faded and chipped. Munich (Kurt Wolff) 1928.

Prague: Meltantrich, 1947. Octavo. Original pictorial wrappers; 376, [3] pp. Very good, in protective mylar. A late photomontage design by Karel Teige. Translated by St. Budin. A hardcover version was also published. See Karel Teige a typografie 5.2.1.

Prague: Nakladatelství Jos. R. Vilímek, 1931. Octavo (18 × 12.7 cm). Original photo-illustrated pictorial wrappers (not attributed); 97, [3] pp. About very good; first two leaves detached from glue binding; protective mylar. Later redition of this "dramatic poem" in four acts (originally published 1904) by František Xaver Svoboda. With a striking unattributed photo-montage design. Not in Toman, Photo/Montage in Print. As of October 2023, KVK, OCLC show two copies in North America.

Prague: Melantrich, 1946. Octavo (20.2 × 13.4 cm). Original pictorial wrappers; 106; [6] pp. Gatherings uncut and unopened; wrappers somewhat dust-soiled; else good. Sixth edition of the partially autobiographical text. The novel, first published in 1936, was made into a film in 1939 under the title "Věra Lukášová" by Devětsil member Emil František Burian. He was arrested by the German occupiers a few months after the film's release and deported to a concentration camp. After the liberation he became a Czech member of parliament. The cover shows a still from the film supplemented by two abstract spheres floating freely in the air. As of November, OCLC lists five copies of this edition in North America.

Prague: VOKNO, 1983. Octavo (20 × 14.8 cm). Original side-stapled light green card wrappers; 36, [1] pp. of reproduced typescript to rectos, including one photographic print of the author on photo paper. Front wrapper stamped with the VOKNO logo. Light overall wear; about very good. First edition of this important philosophical work by Egon Bondy (1930-2007), who began as a member of surrealist circles in the late 1940s, published his work in samizdat form, and had become one of the key figures of the Czech cultural underground by the 1970s. A philosopher and poet, he was a representative of the anti-totalitarian so-called "trapná poezie" (poetry of awkwardness or embarrassment) and in some facets his work was close to that of the American Beat generation. The present work is a philosophical meditation on his atheism and ontology, which rejects the Church and all forms of organized religion purporting to speak for a personal God, but admits belief in a "living" impersonal god. Published by the… Read More

Prague: Melantrich, 1937. Octavo (19.4 × 13.8 cm). Original cloth binding with pictorial original dust jacket; 229, [2] pp. Dust jacket with small marginal tears; else good or better. First edition of this novel, with a fine anonymous photomontage dust wrapper, which shows two playing card figures on two hands fighting against each other with swords. As of November 2022, we cannot trace any copies via OCLC in North America.