Lot n° 141.B
Estimation :
5000 - 6000
EUR
DOISNEAU Robert. À L'IMPARFAIT DE L'OBJECTIF. Complete manus - Lot 141
DOISNEAU Robert. À L'IMPARFAIT DE L'OBJECTIF. Complete manuscript and typescript. 160 pages in-4 in black perforated binder.
Numerous autograph passages and important corrections in typescript.
Enclosed is the draft cover with editor's note, 1 page in-4 and an original print of the photograph that will be used in part on the dust jacket of the book to be published by Pierre Belfond in 1989, as well as a second original photograph not retained.
On the first page, Doisneau has copied Jacques Prévert's introductory text: "C'est toujours à l'Imparfait de l'objectif que tu conjugues le verbe photographier" ("It's always in the Imperfect tense of the lens that you conjugate the verb to photograph").
IN THE IMPERFECT TENSE OF THE LENS. Typescript. Complete text 165 pages in-4, with Doisneau's final autograph corrections on photocopies and a few handwritten pages.
À L'IMPARFAIT DE L'OBJECTIF. Autograph manuscript. 81 pages in-4 in ink.
Almost complete autograph manuscript with a few erasures and corrections.
Does not include "Photocritique", the last 9 pages of the work.
"When I first jumped into photography, it was made of wood Now it's almost electronic. I keep my nose to the door with the same curiosity as the first day. This animal curiosity is the driving force. If you don't have it, you can always consult books and books and fill your memory, but afterwards you'll only see the world through the eyes of a calf pumped up on hormones. During the journey, I didn't see the time go by, too busy as I was with the permanent and gratuitous spectacle offered by my contemporaries, relieving them, when the occasion presented itself, of an image in passing.
Is that honest? That's a question I've never asked myself. Still, I couldn't resist the glances of chance.
IN THE IMPERFECT TENSE OF THE OBJECTIVE. NAMES. One of the last chapters (devoted to Brassaï, Kertesz, Cratier-Bresson, Willy Ronis, Boubat). Uncorrected typescript. 12 pages in-4.
Typescript with numerous corrections. 13 pages in-4.
Passages redone. 9 autograph pages in-4, one letter to the editor.
Handwritten additions to last chapter. 3 pages in-4 with this autograph note: "It seems better to me to end simply with : The difference between cinema and photography is that to make a film, you have to start by making the quest."
Enclosed: DOISNEAU Robert. 4 AUTOGRAPH POSTCARDS SIGNED to his publisher.
One postcard shows the famous photo of two children walking on their hands, annotated on the back by Doisneau: "I regret that I am slowly descending from the throne on which I was mistakenly installed. What remains of this glorification is a photo showing me as a bearer of light. It's the most beautiful one I can leave to my descendants.
On another postcard, Doisneau says: "There are still a few green spaces here, the color of convalescence and probably that of purgatory."
Attached is a copy of the first edition of "À l'imparfait de l'objectif", published by Belfond in 1989, in a slipcase, with this autograph letter signed by Robert Doisneau: "This copy is aggravated by incongruous details. With the delinquent's friendship. Robert Doisneau, May 1989.
An exceptional copy, enriched with 9 autograph pages in ink by Robert Doisneau, inserted in the copy, of additional memorabilia.
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