Alexey Brodovitch - Ballet - 2024

FANTASTIC, STRONGLY LIMITED AND QUICKLY SOLD-OUT REPRINT of Alexey Brodovitch’s legendary "Ballet", one of the most influential and sought-after works in the history of the photobook, originally published in 1945 by J. J. Augustin, New York (reportedly only 500 copies were printed).

One of the most lauded post-war American photography books, yet so rare and expensive that many connoisseurs have never even seen a copy of the original edition, let alone held one in their hands.

- Andrew Roth, "The Book of 101 Books", pages 110-113
- Martin Parr, Gerry Badger, "The Photobook: A History Volume I, pages 240-241
- Hasselblad Center "The Open Book: A History of the Photographic Book from 1878 to the Present", pages 136-137

Alexey Brodovitch’s aim was to capture dance in its spontaneous, living present.

BRILLIANT DESIGN.
BREATH-TAKING PRINTING.

New, mint, unread; still originally shrink-wrapped in publisher's plastic foil.
COLLECTOR'S COPY.

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“Free from all artistic preconceptions and concerned with existential questions, Alexey Brodovitch devoted five years to the final touring performances of the Ballets Russes in America. These included productions of Bronislava Nijinska’s Les Cents Baisers and Les Noces; George Balanchine’s La Concurrence and Cotillon; and Leonide Massine’s Symphonie Fantastique, Le Tricorne, La Boutique Fantasque, Septième Symphonie, and Choreartium; as well as Le Lac des Cygnes (after Petipa) and Les Sylphides (after Fokine). When the book appeared in 1945, the flame of the revolutionary dance tradition ignited by Sergei Diaghilev and carried forward by his artistic heirs had come to an end.
In Ballet, Brodovitch engaged with the image and the book form in a way that continues to fascinate to this day. Printing, however, played an equally decisive role in his experiment. He intensified the grain of his photographic film through an experimental gravure process that was risky and unpredictable. The improvised procedure required the printer to be fully immersed in the moment of creation—analogous to a dancer in performance. Each of his decisions and challenges would be recorded on the pages.
The inking and wiping mechanisms of the gravure press were used to aggressively mark the dance action across the wide pages of the book, producing images that often resemble drawings more than photographs. Isolated spots, streaks, and ink smudges were accepted and even welcomed. The plates wore down and ink levels fluctuated dramatically. The precise marks on the pages—which in another production context might have been considered flaws—were less important than the fact that they existed and were visible as honest and spontaneous traces of the moment of creation.
On the eve of the 80th anniversary of the publication of Ballet, Little Steidl’s new edition revives Brodovitch’s masterpiece in all its material intensity through a specially developed experimental five-color printing process. The custom technique, which pushes the technical limits of offset lithography to the extreme, was developed and realized by Nina Holland with the intention not only of recreating the visual intensity of the 1945 edition, but also of reviving the risk and spontaneity of Brodovitch’s experiment.
In a separate booklet accompanying the reissue, Holland and co-editor Joshua Chuang present a previously unknown account of the 1945 production—based on their forensic examination of the original edition—suggesting that Brodovitch’s artistic achievement should be regarded not merely as one of the high points, but as a uniquely radical work in the history of the photobook and printmaking.
The reprint follows the design and construction of Brodovitch’s 1945 original edition: a stiff paperback binding with a sewn book block composed of nine sixteen-page signatures; endpapers; a gray buckram-wrapped spine; and raw cover boards with a two-millimeter overhang. The book is fitted with a blue-gray French-wrap dust jacket printed in white. The reprint was bound by master bookbinder Sandra Roth at Buchbinderei Köhler & Roth in Rodgau, using the same hybrid hand-and-machine production typical of a publishing bindery in 1945. Roth shaped the book spines by hand in the traditional manner, applying two layers of Planatol BB dispersion adhesive—a superior technique that cannot be carried out in today’s industrial inline binding processes.”
(Publisher’s information)

Little Steidl, Heidelberg. 2024. Reprint.

Original portfolio box. 2 volumes. 1. Illustrated original hardcover with sewn binding and original dust jacket. 2. Hand-sewn booklet. 144 pages. 295 x 226 mm (box). 280 x 215 mm (book), 280 x 215 mm (booklet, 16 pages). Text in English.

Super beautiful, strongly limited reprint of Alexey Brodovitch’s legendary book "Ballet" - in perfect condition.

"Ballet" is renowned late graphic designer Alexey Brodovitch's iconic 1945 book of photographic vignettes capturing eleven performances by The Ballets Russes between 1935 and 1937. Noted for the innovative-at-the-time use of murky shadows and blurred dancers bathed in light, these arresting images of the likes of principals Leonide Massine, Tamara Toumanova, Irina Baronova, and more are accompanied by New York poet and dance critic Edwin Denby's brief but cogent text.

A masterpiece of cinematic sequencing and design. Ballet established an influential template and remains a touchstone of twentieth-century photographic bookmaking. Alexey Brodovitch took these photographs between 1935 and 1937 of various international ballet companies performing in New York. Initially, he intended to capture images of the performances for 'souvenir purposes,' but later expanded his scope to photograph the dancers from behind the stage during performances and rehearsals. Later, he enlarged small sections of selected frames and employed various darkroom techniques to bleach and fade certain areas, further emphasising the images' contrast and grain.Brodovitch was crucial in introducing the United States to a radically simplified, 'modern' graphic design style forged in Europe in the 1920s from various vanguard art and design movements. As graphic designer and art director of Harper's Bazaar between 1934 and 1958, he redefined the possibilities of what could be achieved in a page layout, and through his 'Design Laboratory' workshop classes, he mentored and influenced generations of photographers, including Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, Robert Frank, Lisette Model, Garry Winogrand, Marvin Israel, and Tony Ray-Jones. Due to its small print run, Ballet received limited commercial exposure, though its influence was widely felt. Brodovitch distributed a significant number of the copies that did find their way into circulation, mostly giving them to friends and colleagues. The book's scarcity was exacerbated when fires in 1956 and 1959 destroyed much of Brodovitch's working archive and library, including most of his remaining copies of Ballet.