60 Fotos...

both with the publisher's scarce wraparound bands

First editions of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Aenne Biermann's first photographic monographs, each complete with the publisher's scarce wraparound band, which exists in three versions: German, French, and English. These books were supposed to be a part of a much larger series of books titled Fototek, but only the first two were published due to the economic and political circumstances in Germany at the time. Future unrealised titles are announced at the rear of each book, to include 'The Monsterous - Kitsch in Photography'; 'Photomontage edited by Jan Tschichold'; 'The Police Photograph'; 'El Lissitsky 60 Fotos and Typofotos'; 'The Sport Photograph'; and '100 years of Nude Photography', a note also states that several others were being planned. The series was edited by Franz Roh and designed by Jan Tschichold.

Roh and Tschichold had previously collaborated on Foto-Auge (1929), the book issued to accompany the Film und Foto exhibition in Stuttgart. Sales of the two Fototek volumes were sluggish, and the financial difficulties that Klinkhardt & Biermann encountered due to the economic crisis led to the sale of the publishing house. In March 1932, Franz Roh wrote to the photographer Moi Ver that he still hoped to be able to include his work in a later volume of the Fototek series but that negotiations with the new owners were ongoing. The following March, he again wrote to Moi Ver, stating that he hoped to continue the series with another publisher, adding that he had asked Laszlo Moholy-Nagy to come on board as a co-editor. However, shortly after this, the Nazi Party came to power, and the political and cultural changes in Germany made it impossible to continue a series like Fototek.

Anna Sibillia Sternefeld was born in 1898 in Goch am Niederrhein, Germany which is close to the Dutch border. In 1920 she married Herbert Joseph Biermann (after her marriage she used the name Aenne or Änne). Her work featured in all the major international photographic exhibitions of the late 1920s and early 1930s including Fotografie der Gegenwart (1929, Essen); Film und Foto (1929, Stuttgart); Das Lichtbild (1930, Munich); Die Neue Fotografie (1931, Basel); and International de la Photographie (1932, Brussels). She died in 1933 after an illness and was therefore spared the Nazi persecution suffered by her family and the family of her husband. In 1939 her widower Herbert Biermann emigrated to Palestine, he attempted to bring Aenne's photographic archive with him but Nazi officials intercepted and confiscated it in Trieste. Her archive has never been fully recovered, and prints of only around four hundred photographs are known to have survived.

[MOHOLY-NAGY] First edition with the scarce wraparound band in French; 8vo (249 x 175 mm, 9 ¾ x 7 in); black & white photographs printed in relief halftone by F. Bruckmann AG, Munich, text in German, English, and French, design by Jan Tschichold, light foxing to preliminary and end pages; photo-illustrated wrappers printed in yellow and black, light rubbing, minor wear, light foxing to lower side, publisher's green printed wraparound band, crease to spine, light foxing to lower side, an excellent copy; 11, [60], [5]pp.

[BIERMANN] First edition with the scarce wraparound band in German; (249 x 175 mm, 9 ¾ x 7 in); black & white photographs printed in relief halftone by F. Bruckmann AG, Munich, introduction by Franz Roh, text in German, English, and French, design by Jan Tschichold; photo-illustrated wrappers printed in yellow and black, light rubbing to lower side, publisher's red printed wraparound band, minor wear, nick to upper panel, a near fine copy; 76pp.

[MOHOLY-NAGY] Regards à travers Le Livre 33; Fotografia Pública 586; Auer Collection p158; Autopsie II, pp332–43. [BIERMANN] Regards sur un siècle de photographie à travers Le Livre no. 34; Fotografia Pública: Photography in Print 1919-1939 p57; Autopsie: Deutschsprachige Fotobücher 1918-1945 I, pp332-343; What They Saw: Historical Photobooks by Women 1843-1999 pp62-3.