Az Érdekes Újság - V. Évfolyam 12. Szám [The Interesting News - 5th Year, No. 12]
Budapest: Légrády Testvérek, 1917. First edition. Softcover. Large quarto. 40pp. Original photo-illustrated wrappers. This rare issue of Hungarian weekly "Az Érdekes Újság" contains André Kertész's first published photographs. Indeed, Kertész sent some photographs for a photo contest organized by the magazine, and two of them "Mese" (Tale, p. 10), and "A Kupaktanács" (The Council, p. 13) were published. This issue is dated March 25, 1917, and contains numerous photographs related to the on-going First World War. All the photographs are reproduced in photogravure. The front cover features a striking photograph of Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, who died earlier in the same month (March 8, 1917). The back cover features a large portrait of Zoltán Ambrus, a renown Hungarian writer and translator. Rubbing along spine and edges of wrappers. Pages age-toned along margin. Text in Hungarian. Wrappers in overall good- to good, interior in good to good+ condition. g to vg. Item #39390
André Kertész (1894-1985), born Kertész Andor, was a Hungarian-born photographer known for his groundbreaking contributions to photographic composition and the photo essay. In the early years of his career, his then-unorthodox camera angles and style prevented his work from gaining wider recognition. Kertész never felt that he had gained the worldwide recognition he deserved. Today he is considered one of the seminal figures of photojournalism. Expected by his family to work as a stockbroker, Kertész pursued photography independently as an autodidact, and his early work was published primarily in magazines, a major market in those years. This continued until much later in his life, when Kertész stopped accepting commissions. He served briefly in World War I and moved to Paris in 1925, then the artistic capital of the world, against the wishes of his family. In Paris he worked for a French illustrated magazine called "VU." Involved with many young immigrant artists and the Dada movement, he achieved critical and commercial success. Due to German persecution of the Jews and the threat of World War II, Kertész decided to emigrate to the United States in 1936, where he had to rebuild his reputation through commissioned work. In the 1940s and 1950s, he stopped working for magazines and began to achieve greater international success. His career is generally divided into four periods, based on where he was working and his work was most prominently known. They are called the Hungarian period, the French period, the American period and, toward the end of his life, the International period.
Price: $1,750.00