Web Description: Modern Rare: Invisible City
Los Angeles [sic], CA: Twelvetrees Press Hardcover 1st Printing. Unpaginated. Published in 1988. The artist/photographer's breakthrough debut collection. Now widely considered to be a late-modern photography classic. Limited Edition of 2000 copies. An austerely elegant production by Ken Schles and Jack Woody: Regular-sized volume format. Silk [sic] cloth boards with titles on cover and spine, as issued. Photographs by Ken Schles. There is no text [sic]. Printed in gravure on thick uncoated stock paper in the United States to absolutely the highest standards. In black pictorial DJ with titles on cover and spine, as issued. Presents the artist/photographer's haunting images of city landscapes juxtaposed with the people who live in them. They share an indescribably disturbing quality that makes them seem perfectly made for each other: An eerie, desolate place for a shadowy, soulless people. It is well-known that the pictures were taken in New York City and evoke Weegee's great work ("Naked City"). But there is no doubt that Schles intends the photographs to be seen as transcending their actual place and having a universal significance. They are the intensely personal vision of an artist and his private universe. The book puzzled audiences at first, but now enjoys canonical status. It took Ken Schles more than a decade to produce his second collection, "Geometry of Innocence". In today's media hype-driven world, he would have been forgotten by now after such a long absence. It is evident that Ken Schles's "message" in these wordless photographs spoke to people in a way that was unforgettable and compelling. This title has been out-of-print for a very long time. Copies in fine condition are extremely difficult to find and the book's value has surpassed the $1000 mark. This is one of very few copies still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, an unread collector's copy. A rare copy thus. 45 sheetfed gravure plates. One of the most brilliant living artist/photographers. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER KEN SCHLES TITLE IN OUR CATALOG) ISBN 094264235X. [Chicago, IL, U.S.A.]