Richard Avedon; James Baldwin - Nothing Personal [Première édition] - 1964

In 1963/64, Richard Avedon, one of the world’s most famous fashion photographers at the time, teamed up with James Baldwin, his former high school friend who had become a celebrated novelist and a major voice in the civil rights struggle in the United States, to create "Nothing Personal," a book about living conditions in America.

The subjects photographed by Avedon—icons of the civil rights movement, intellectuals, politicians, pop singers, patients of a psychiatric asylum, and ordinary Americans—are carefully juxtaposed, cropped, and rigorously ordered.
Baldwin’s polemical essay critiques a society that is disconnected, unjust, and divisive, caught in an existential crisis. In this intensely personal and pertinent testimony, the writer recounts his own experience of harassment by a racist policeman in the streets of New York, his hometown.

Designed by Marvin Israel, this book represents the triumph of minimalism.
The book’s substantial format, together with the striking placement of images and text, revolutionized the layout and form of photo books.
Hardcover edition.
Numerous creases at the hinges (see photos).
Missing the slipcase.

No delivery to the United States due to new legislation.