Jakob Tuggener - Fabrik, Rotapfel Verlag, 1943, Erlenbach-Zürich
Hardcover, cloth bound with dustjacket, including a loose blue sheet with plate captions of the 95 black and white gravure plates. Introduction by Arnold Burgaurer.
"Jakob Tuggener's Fabrik, published in Zurich in 1943, is a milestone in the history of the photography book. Its 72 images, in the expressionist aesthetic of a silent movie, impart a skeptical view of technological progress: at the time the Swiss military industry was producing weapons for World War II. Tuggener, who was born in 1904, had an uncompromisingly critical view of the military-industrial complex that did not suit his era. His images of rural life and high-society parties had been easy to sell, but Fabrikfound no publisher. And when the book did come out, it was not a commercial success. Copies were sold at a loss and some are believed to have been pulped. Now this seminal work, which has since become a sought-after classic, is being reissued with a contemporary afterword. In his lifetime, Tuggener's work appeared--at Robert Frank's suggestion--in Edward Steichen's Post-War European Photography and in The Museum of Modern Art's seminal exhibition, The Family of Man, in whose catalogue it remains in print. Tuggener's death in 1988 left an immense catalogue of his life's work, much of which has yet to be shown: more than 60 maquettes, thousands of photographs, drawings, watercolors, oil paintings and silent films." (From the Steidl reprint)
Pages: 112
Place: Erlenbach-Zürich
Year: 1943
Publisher: Rotapfel Verlag
Size: 23 x 31 cm (approx.)
Hardcover, cloth bound with dustjacket, including a loose blue sheet with plate captions of the 95 black and white gravure plates. Introduction by Arnold Burgaurer.
"Jakob Tuggener's Fabrik, published in Zurich in 1943, is a milestone in the history of the photography book. Its 72 images, in the expressionist aesthetic of a silent movie, impart a skeptical view of technological progress: at the time the Swiss military industry was producing weapons for World War II. Tuggener, who was born in 1904, had an uncompromisingly critical view of the military-industrial complex that did not suit his era. His images of rural life and high-society parties had been easy to sell, but Fabrikfound no publisher. And when the book did come out, it was not a commercial success. Copies were sold at a loss and some are believed to have been pulped. Now this seminal work, which has since become a sought-after classic, is being reissued with a contemporary afterword. In his lifetime, Tuggener's work appeared--at Robert Frank's suggestion--in Edward Steichen's Post-War European Photography and in The Museum of Modern Art's seminal exhibition, The Family of Man, in whose catalogue it remains in print. Tuggener's death in 1988 left an immense catalogue of his life's work, much of which has yet to be shown: more than 60 maquettes, thousands of photographs, drawings, watercolors, oil paintings and silent films." (From the Steidl reprint)
Pages: 112
Place: Erlenbach-Zürich
Year: 1943
Publisher: Rotapfel Verlag
Size: 23 x 31 cm (approx.)
