Wolfgang Tillmans - Concorde - 1997

This rare first edition of Wolfgang Tillmans iconic artists book consists of sixty two color photographs of the supersonic Concorde airliner, an icon of 20th century progress. As Parr and Badger note: "one of the most interesting challenges that photographers can set for themselves is how small or nominally insignificant the principal element of the image can be made inside the frame.... Is it a bird or is it a plane? Fans of the old Superman series will remember that refrain, and it always seemed an appropriate question whenever the late-lamented Concorde flew overhead. A jumbo jet is a jumbo jet, but Concorde was different, sleek and elegant, almost half-bird, and it was the reflex habit of many to look skywards when this marvel of modern engineering roared overhead.

Tillmans replicated this singular folk custom of the late twentieth century in Concorde, glancing up and ripping off a few frames as Concorde passed over his head. He did this more often than not when stationed on the ground in one of those endless outer London suburbs that ring Heathrow Airport, so his book is not just a homage to an extraordinary machine; it is also about dreams and the psychological power of flight, the difference between desire and actuality. The more soulless and dull the suburb glimpsed in one of Tillmans's small picture sequences, the greater the talismanic pull of Concorde, the greater its ability to whisk us away from grim reality and fly us to a realm of fantasy and dreams." The Photobook, Vol.2 p.170

Listed in Martin Parr and Gerry Badger, The Photobook : Volume 2, page 170.

According to photographer Wolfgang Tillmans, "For the chosen few, flying Concorde is apparently a glamorous but cramped and slightly boring routine while to watch it in air, landing or taking off is a strange and free spectacle, a super modern anachronism and an image of the desire to overcome time and distance through technology."

Condition:
Very good. Extremely rare first edition, first printing copy of this Turner Prize winning artist's first book. The first edition was published to coincide with the exhibition "I didn't inhale" by Wolfgang Tillmans at Chisenhale Gallery, London 1997. Tiny edgewear to bottom of spine and small scratch to rear cover. Please examine listing photos carefully.