A masterpiece of cinematic sequencing and design. Ballet established an influential template and remains a touchstone of twentieth-century photographic bookmaking. Alexey Brodovitch took these photographs between 1935 and 1937 of various international ballet companies performing in New York. Initially, he intended to capture images of the performances for 'souvenir purposes', but later expanded his scope to photograph the dancers from behind the stage during performances and rehearsals. Later, he enlarged small sections of selected frames and employed various darkroom techniques to bleach and fade certain areas, further emphasising the images' contrast and grain.

Brodovitch was crucial in introducing the United States to a radically simplified, 'modern' graphic design style forged in Europe in the 1920s from various vanguard art and design movements. As graphic designer and art director of Harper's Bazaar between 1934 and 1958, he redefined the possibilities of what could be achieved in a page layout, and through his 'Design Laboratory' workshop classes, he mentored and influenced generations of photographers, including Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, Robert Frank, Lisette Model, Garry Winogrand, Marvin Israel, and Tony Ray-Jones.

Due to its small print run, Ballet received limited commercial exposure, though its influence was widely felt. Brodovitch distributed a significant number of the copies that did find their way into circulation, mostly giving them to friends and colleagues. The book's scarcity was exacerbated when fires in 1956 and 1959 destroyed much of Brodovitch's working archive and library, including most of his remaining copies of Ballet.

First edition, one of 500 copies; oblong 8vo (214 x 277 mm, 8 ½ x 11 in); 104 black-and-white photographs and design by Alexey Brodovitch, printed in gravure; original plain boards with grey cloth spine, age-toned, spine rubbed toward foot, light cockling and a faint moisture stain to top of pages, occasional light spotting, publisher's grey printed French-dust-jacket with title printed in white on front, soiled, toned, and worn, front panel detached, head and foot of rear panel split at spine, bookseller's ticket to front free endpaper, without the rare card slipcase, a very good copy in a good example of the notoriously fragile dust-jacket; 143, [1]pp.

Regards sur un siècle de photographie à travers Le Livre 85; The Book of 101 Books Seminal Photography Books of the Twentieth Century pp110-3; The Photobook: A History, I pp240-1; The Open Book A History of the Photographic Book from 1878 to the Present pp136-7; 802 photo books from the M + M Auer collection p314; Errata Editions Books on Books #11 Alexey Brodovitch: Ballet.