TILL MINNET AV MIG SJALV ("IN MEMORY OF MYSELF") - Rare Fine Copy of The First Edition/First Printing

1st Printing. 32 pages. Published in 1965. Collection of black-and-white photographs. One of the most important photographic debuts of the 20th century. The first and only edition. Published in a small and limited print run as a softcover original only. There is no ISBN. The First Edition is now rare. An austerely elegant production by Christer Stromholm and Erik Pettersson: Small-size volume format. Pictorial softcovers with titles on the cover, as issued. Photographs by Christer Stromholm. Interview with the photographer. Printed on pristine-white, thick coated stock paper in Sweden to the highest standards. Without DJ, as issued. Presents Christer Stromholm's "Till minnet av mig sjalv". The first of two breakthrough collections that established the photographer's reputation, the other being "Poste Restante". The images of detritus and decay (in the first sequence) as well as nude women (in the second sequence) are meant to be expressive, not representative. That is, they are meant to express the photographer's subjective inner life, his thoughts, feelings, and sensations, insofar as the passive camera is able to capture them without any intrusive intervention by the photographer before or after through darkroom or digital manipulation, as one finds in the Mannerist work of the Starn Twins and Joel-Peter Witkin. The final photograph of a beautiful female performer dangerously entwined, as if in a sex act, with a giant snake in a glass cage (while a man is looking passively on, like a camera) sums up the Stromholm photographic universe: Dark, macabre, diabolical, the most disturbing evocation of private hell we will likely see in photography, without any self-conscious or indulgent affectation. Stromholm anticipated Francesca Woodman's Woman With Snake harrowing imagery by more than a decade. In 1965, no other photographer was making these unremitting images. At the time, the world was passionately engaged with the dark films of Ingmar Bergman, the greatest film artist of the 20th century. It is easy to see, with the benefit of hindsight, that compared to Stromholm, Bergman's equally tormented private universe is almost positively bright and cheerful. At his best, Stromholm (and Bergman) evokes what Freud once said about all great art: That the greater it is, the more obscene it also is. An absolute "must-have" title for Christer Stromholm collectors. This title is a great art photography book. It is very cheaply produced, not at all like his lavish subsequent monographs. But no serious collection of photobooks is complete without it. This is one of few copies of the First Edition/First Printing still available online and is in fine condition overall: Every single internal page is clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws yet command more than a thousand dollars because the book, in any condition, is rare. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare copy thus. 38 plates. One of the greatest photographers of the 20th century. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER CHRISTER STROMHOLM TITLES IN OUR CATALOG).