KIMURA, Ihei

Pari / Paris. (With 3 Original Printer's Photographs from the Book)

Tokyo: Nora-sha, 1974. First Edition. Quarto. Original booklet and card prospectus laid in. Lengthily INSCRIBED in Japanese by the publisher, photographer Kazuo Kitai, who was bankrupted publishing this book. Kitai explained to me that Ihei Kimura - at the time Japan's best-known photographer - had personally promised to sell 500 copies of the book. Kimura's untimely death as the book went to press undid any chance the young publisher had to recoup his money. Included with this copy are three original prints from the book, including the image reproduced on the slipcase, and the first image in the book. The photographs were printed in the early seventies by Fuji film under Kitai's direct supervision and were used for the publication of the book. They are SIGNED and annotated by Kitai. As to be expected from commercial color printing from this era, the photographs have faded. Kimura's images of Paris are exceedingly rare and almost never surface on the market. (Parr / Badger, v1, 297). The book shows a little light foxing to the white boards, otherwise near fine with the original glassine largely intact, in a clean, near fine example of the publisher's slipcase.