JAGUER (Édouard). - Lot 137

JAGUER (Édouard). The Mysteries of the Darkroom: Surrealism and Photography. Paris: Flammarion, 1982. Large quarto (25 x 31 cm), publisher’s hardcover with illustrated dust jacket. Extensive black-and-white illustrations. 231 pp. First edition of one of the seminal works on the relationship between Surrealism and photography. Édouard Jaguer (1924–2006), writer, art critic, and a major figure in the postwar Surrealist movement, traces the history of Surrealist photography from the experiments of Man Ray, Raoul Ubac, Hans Bellmer, Maurice Tabard, Brassaï, Dora Maar, Claude Cahun, Eli Lotar, Boiffard, and Tato, all the way to the movement’s contemporary offshoots. The book reproduces several hundred photographs, photomontages, rayograms, solarizations, and archival documents, accompanied by historical and critical essays. It remains one of the essential references on the subject today. A beautiful, richly illustrated publication, sought after by both photography enthusiasts and collectors of Surrealism. Condition: good copy. Dust jacket shows scuffing, small snags, and marginal tears, mainly at the top and in the corners, with some adhesive residue on the endpapers. Hardcover in very good condition. Interior is clean and complete.