John Stezaker makes subtle photo collages. In The 3rd Person Archive, he cut up photographs from topographical publications of the 1920s and 30s, isolating distant figures individually, in pairs, or in small groups.

'This sense of picturing from a distance relates to one of photography's oldest and most continuous functions: surveillance. But Stezaker is a contemporary Surrealist, and it is no accident that he has chosen his imagery from publications from the heyday of Surrealism. Like much Surrealist work. The 3rd Person Archive is both fascinating and disconcerting. The figures are trapped within a hermetic frame, perpetually walking but going nowhere. Stezaker's work is often about the dissolution or fragmentation of the self. Here, it seems to be about wholeness, but it is a terrifying wholeness, coming at the expense of isolation.'

First edition; (240 × 153 mm / 9½ x 6 in); reproductions of sections of photographs, design by YES; black endpapers, grey cloth-covered boards, titles stamped to spine and upper side in black; small stain to foot of spine, near fine; [272]pp.

The Photobook: A History III, p296-7.