DES OISEAUX ("ON BIRDS")

Paris, France: Atelier Exb/Xavier Barral, 2018. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. As New/No Dust Jacket, As Issued.. Paris, France: Atelier Exb/Xavier Barral, 2018. Hardcover. As New/None, As Issued. First Edition/First Printing. 120 pages. Retrospective collection of avian photographs. One of the most beautiful art photography books of our time. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions, particularly the 2020 Second Edition. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only and as part of the "Des Oiseaux" Series, bird photographs by various contemporary photographers. The First Edition is now rare. "Signed Copy" round sticker pasted in front. A sublime production by Xavier Barral and Coline Aguettax: Oversize-volume format. Pale gray cloth boards with reproduction and titles pasted on the cover and printed on the spine, as issued. Photographs by Pentti Sammallahti. Essay (in English) by Guilhem Lesaffre, one of the world's most prominent ornithologists. Printed on pristine-white, thick coated stock paper in Paris, France to the highest standards. The reproduction quality is outstanding in every respect. Without DJ, as issued. Presents Pentti Sammallahti's "Des Oiseaux". The best book in the now-legendary Series by Atelier EXB, a serenely meditative - and visually imaginative - sequence that will not be surpassed by any other contemporary photographer. The only bird book that can be compared to it as an artistic achievement is Masahisa Fukase's "Karasu" ("Ravens"), with which it has nothing in common in terms of emotional temperature: Fukase is dark and anguished; Sammallahti is luminous and joyful. "His photographs attest to his extraordinary eye for detail, to light that sculpts spaces, to silent expanses in which a human or animal presence suddenly appears. The experience of the image is twofold: Beyond its narrative virtuosity, his use of a two-color process, with immaculate whites (as in the plumage of his swans or pink flamingos) confronted with deep blacks, creates a play of textures and powerfully renders a world" (Publisher's blurb). An absolute "must-have" title for Pentti Sammallahti collectors. This Autographed Copy is very prominently, neatly, and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on the title page by Pentti Sammallahti. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is a great art photography book. As far as we know, this is the only such signed copy of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Precedes and should NOT be confused with the 2020 Second Edition. A rare signed copy thus. 66 duotone plates. One of the greatest photographers of our time. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER PENTTI SAMMALLAHTI TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 2365112153.