Fred Archer on Portraiture by Fred Archer 1st/1st, 1948 HC/DJ SIGNED — Very Rare Publisher: Camera Craft Publishing Company, San Francisco (1948)
Very rare, SIGNED, first edition, first printing of "Fred Archer on Portraiture" by Fred Archer from 1948. Hardcover with dust jacket. Fred Archer was pioneer in the development of photography techniques, as well as the premier Hollywood photographer to the stars in the 1940s. Archer worked with Ansel Adams to create the "Zone System" which revolutionized a new method of photography.
The book is in excellent condition. The boards and binding are solid and tight with exceedingly little shelf-wear. The pages are crisp, clean, and the book does not seem to have been read. No interior markings, save for Archer's signature on title page and slight natural tanning to inside boards. The dust jacket is in fair condition with tears and wear along the spine. The flaps themselves are in very good condition with only slight wear at corners. Please see below for more on Archer's life and career!
Biography
Fred R. Archer (1889 – April 27, 1963), was an American photographer who collaborated with Ansel Adams to create the Zone System He was a portrait photographer specializing early in his career in portraits of Hollywood movie stars. He was associated with the artistic trend in photography known as pictoralism. He later became a photography teacher, and ran his own photography school for many years.
Along with Edward Weston, whose portrait he took, Archer was known as one of the "two big names in art photography in those days out on the west coast".
He socialized with and exchanged ideas with many other artists and
intellectuals in Los Angeles for decades. He was "without a doubt, the
individual with the longest history of participation in the Southern
California Salon movement."
