One of 100 signed copies. One of 100 signed and numbered copies bound in cloth. The regular edition was issued in two versions: a single volume to accompany a US touring retrospective exhibition and a two-volume version for general distribution. The first volume covers 1915-1946, the second 1950-1968.

'Photography is very easy,' Strand writes in his introduction. 'The visible world is such an interesting place that it doesn't take much in the way of passion, insight, sensitivity, or rigorous craft to make a picture worth looking at 07/08/2024 at least briefly. But photography is very difficult. The visible world is so harshly recalcitrant. It stays where it is in its own context. It takes the quickest eye, the most penetrating insight, and the most painstaking technique to make a photograph that is a felt comment, bare of inessentials; a photograph that moves the viewer with an understanding of the meaning of what is photographed.'

First edition, number 42 of 100 signed copies; 2 vols, 4to (304 x 248 mm, 12 x 9¾ in); black-and-white photographs; tan endpapers, burgundy cloth-covered boards, titles to spines in gilt, publisher's burgundy cloth-covered board slipcase, lightly marked and worn, fine in an excellent slipcase; [ii], 152, [4]; [ii], 157-380, [2]pp.