MAN RAY PHOTOGRAPHS 1920-1934 PARIS

Hartford, CT: James Thrall Soby, 1934. Near fine.. First edition, second issue of Man Ray's extraordinary first monograph - association copy inscribed to friend and muse Joella Bayer, whose portrait appears in the book. Man Ray's photobook of "sensuous, often dreamlike" photographs and rayographs, inscribed to Joella Bayer, daughter of poet and artist Mina Loy and wife of designer and photographer Herbert Bayer (whose signature and thumbprint are also present). Joella Bayer knew Ray most of his life, having been introduced to the artist by her mother in Paris in the 1920s and then growing closer through her first husband, the gallerist Julien Levy, who frequently exhibited Ray. Ray portrayed or photographed Joella Bayer a number of times during his life, most famously in this book, where her solarized portrait appears as plate 47.

Arranged in five thematic sections, PHOTOGRAPHS includes laudatory essays and poems from Ray's surrealist contemporaries André Breton, Paul Éluard, Rrose Sélavy [Marcel Duchamp], and Tristan Tzara marking the divisions. Stated "Second Edition" (as almost all copies are); in fact it is the second issue of the first edition, mislabeled in an attempt "to generate demand where none existed by suggesting the edition had sold out. After replacing the title pages of these copies with one stating second edition, [the publisher] returned them for sale" (Roth 80).

Uncommon in this condition, scarce signed, and rare with so strong an association: a remarkable copy of this fragile and important book. 12.25'' x 9''. Text in English and French. Original color photographic wrappers with plastic comb binding. Frontispiece portrait of Man Ray by Picasso. 104 heliogravures. Inscribed by Ray to Joella Bayer on the inside of the front cover: "For Joella / Man Ray." Additionally signed below by her husband Herbert Bayer, with his thumbprint. Touches of shelfwear, rubbing. Else bright and sound with comb binding entirely intact.