268 - VIVANCO (Luis Felipe)

VIVANCO (Luis Felipe) Spain - España. Text by Luis Felipe Vivanco. Photographs from the Spanish Ministry of Information, presented under the direction of Gabriel Arias Salgado, the Duke of Luna, and the Duke of San Lucar la Mayor. Neuchâtel and Paris, Éditions Ides et Calendes, 1953. Large quarto (approx. 28 × 22 cm), publisher’s cardboard binding with a mounted photographic cover, 140 black-and-white photographs, mostly full-page and as inserts. Collection des Ides photographiques, no. 5. First edition of this important photographic album dedicated to Spain, published in 1953; some commercial listings date it to 1954, but institutional catalogs, notably that of the BnF, clearly list 1953. The text is by the Spanish poet and architect Luis Felipe Vivanco (1907–1975). It accompanies an extensive photographic campaign carried out by the Spanish Ministry of Information. The book was published simultaneously for an international readership, with texts or translations in French, Spanish, English, and German. A stunning photographic series offering a true portrait of Spain in the early 1950s: landscapes, cities and villages, religious and secular architecture, castles, monasteries, Romanesque and Gothic art, monuments, and rural scenes. The layout, very characteristic of postwar coffee-table photography books, alternates between full-page compositions, double-page spreads, and collages of multiple photographs. The photographs are reproduced using heliogravure, giving the blacks a particularly striking depth and quality. A copy currently on the market confirms the presence of 140 photogravure prints. A fine copy, complete with its photographic cover with flaps. Some minor scuffing and slight imperfections on the cap bands and corners of the cover; the interior is in very fresh condition.