Tony Ray Jones - Loisirs anglas - 1974

French edition of the only major book designed by Tony Ray-Jones (1941-1972), a leading figure in British photography whose career was prematurely cut short at the age of 28. Trained in the United States with Alexey Brodovitch and influenced by Garry Winogrand, Joel Meyerowitz and Lee Friedlander, Ray-Jones returned to England in the mid-1960s with the ambitious project of drawing a portrait of a country in full swing of change. 120 black-and-white photographs.

For several years, he traveled through seaside resorts, fairs, contests, picnics, public gardens, popular celebrations or villages along the English coast to capture the behaviors, rites and eccentricities of his fellow countrymen. His gaze, at once ironic, tender and deeply anthropological, renews British documentary photography by favoring complex compositions, dense scenes and visual coincidences that would set an example for an entire generation of photographers, notably Martin Parr. Published shortly after his death, A Day Off - An English Journal remains his foundational work; this French edition preserves the essential, under the title English Leisure, collecting 120 photographs preceded by a foreword by Ainsley Ellis. The work is today regarded as a classic of post-war British humanist photography and one of the most influential photobooks of the 1970s.

Faded jacket with small tears along the edges. SP mark at the bottom of the front free endpaper.