Michael Joseph (1941-) - Saigon Helicopter Landing, Vietnam 1964
06
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Current bid
€ 30
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Selected by Kai Brückner
Over 35 years' experience; former gallery owner and Museum Folkwang curator.
Estimate € 850 - € 1,050
 | €30 | |
|---|---|---|
| €25 |
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Michael Joseph’s 1964 C‑type print Saigon Helicopter Landing, Vietnam 1964, is a limited edition (1/20) hand‑signed by the artist, with image dimensions 30 × 40 cm and in extremely fine condition.
AI-assisted summary
Description from the seller
Aftermath - South Vietnam, 1964
Michael Joseph (b. 1941)
Black & white photographic print
Original photograph: South Vietnam, October 1964
Signed and dated by Michael Joseph
Limited Edition: 1/20
A stark and unsettling photograph from Michael Joseph’s Vietnam archive, taken in South Vietnam in October 1964, when the photographer was just 23 years old.
Across an open field, the bodies of numerous people lie scattered through the long grass, while a military helicopter stands nearby. There is no visible fighting and no conventional action at the centre of the photograph. Instead, Joseph records what appears to be its aftermath.
The composition is extraordinary in its restraint. The helicopter, an imposing symbol of the increasingly mechanised war, occupies comparatively little of the frame. The eye is instead drawn through the field from one motionless figure to another. Some bodies are immediately apparent; others almost disappear into the vegetation.
There is something particularly disturbing about the distance from which Joseph photographed the scene. Nothing is dramatised or sensationalised. The landscape stretches calmly towards the horizon while, in the foreground, the human consequences of the conflict are laid out across the ground.
Photographed in 1964, before the major deployment of US ground combat forces the following year, the image belongs to an earlier and less frequently illustrated phase of the Vietnam War. Joseph travelled through South Vietnam photographing military activity alongside hospitals, villages, civilians and everyday life, producing a remarkable record of the country at a critical moment in its history.
The identities and circumstances of the people pictured have not been established from the surviving archive, and the photograph is therefore presented without speculation as to their allegiance or precisely what occurred before Joseph arrived.
This contemporary black & white photographic print has been personally signed and inscribed “Vietnam 1964” by Michael Joseph and will additionally be numbered 1/20, establishing it as the first print in an official limited edition of twenty.
It is not an easy photograph — nor should it be. Sixty-two years later, it remains an exceptionally direct document of the human reality of the war witnessed through the camera of a young photographer.
#MichaelJoseph #Vietnam1964 #VietnamPhotography #VietnamWar #WarPhotography #DocumentaryPhotography #Photojournalism #ConflictPhotography #1960sPhotography #BlackAndWhitePhotography #HistoricalPhotography #LimitedEditionPhotography #PhotographicArchive #CollectiblePhotography #20thCenturyPhotography
Seller's Story
My father, Michael Joseph, was a London-based advertising photographer, active from the mid-1960s to the early 1990s, and best known for his photographs for the Rolling Stones’ Beggars Banquet gatefold.
My continuing mission is to share what we affectionately call “the other photographs”: the lesser-known treasures from his extraordinary archive — original darkroom prints, test prints, alternative frames from major shoots, his celebrated group compositions, and more intimate, personal images.
For this special Solo Seller Auction, I am particularly excited to include a selection from Michael’s 1964 Vietnam archive — photographs that have never previously been seen or offered for sale. These remarkable images reveal a very different side of his work, made when he was just 23 years old.
Alongside Michael’s authentic vintage darkroom prints, I am also presenting a new generation of works: striking prints on aluminium and my own handmade cyanotypes, created from his original negatives and transparencies in the Dordogne sunshine. Some are made on vintage photographic paper retrieved from Michael’s own working library, bringing the archive quite literally into a new generation.
Together, the collection brings photographic history and contemporary experimentation side by side — from unique vintage prints made by Michael himself to bold new interpretations of his remarkable archive.
I hope you enjoy discovering these photographs as much as I enjoy bringing them to light — sometimes preserved exactly as Michael made them, sometimes given an entirely new life.
All works are carefully protected and packed with the attention appropriate to collectible photographic artworks.
For US buyers: customs duties and applicable import charges are paid at source and included in the shipping cost. No additional charges should normally be payable on delivery, subject to any change in regulations.
Translated by Google TranslateAftermath - South Vietnam, 1964
Michael Joseph (b. 1941)
Black & white photographic print
Original photograph: South Vietnam, October 1964
Signed and dated by Michael Joseph
Limited Edition: 1/20
A stark and unsettling photograph from Michael Joseph’s Vietnam archive, taken in South Vietnam in October 1964, when the photographer was just 23 years old.
Across an open field, the bodies of numerous people lie scattered through the long grass, while a military helicopter stands nearby. There is no visible fighting and no conventional action at the centre of the photograph. Instead, Joseph records what appears to be its aftermath.
The composition is extraordinary in its restraint. The helicopter, an imposing symbol of the increasingly mechanised war, occupies comparatively little of the frame. The eye is instead drawn through the field from one motionless figure to another. Some bodies are immediately apparent; others almost disappear into the vegetation.
There is something particularly disturbing about the distance from which Joseph photographed the scene. Nothing is dramatised or sensationalised. The landscape stretches calmly towards the horizon while, in the foreground, the human consequences of the conflict are laid out across the ground.
Photographed in 1964, before the major deployment of US ground combat forces the following year, the image belongs to an earlier and less frequently illustrated phase of the Vietnam War. Joseph travelled through South Vietnam photographing military activity alongside hospitals, villages, civilians and everyday life, producing a remarkable record of the country at a critical moment in its history.
The identities and circumstances of the people pictured have not been established from the surviving archive, and the photograph is therefore presented without speculation as to their allegiance or precisely what occurred before Joseph arrived.
This contemporary black & white photographic print has been personally signed and inscribed “Vietnam 1964” by Michael Joseph and will additionally be numbered 1/20, establishing it as the first print in an official limited edition of twenty.
It is not an easy photograph — nor should it be. Sixty-two years later, it remains an exceptionally direct document of the human reality of the war witnessed through the camera of a young photographer.
#MichaelJoseph #Vietnam1964 #VietnamPhotography #VietnamWar #WarPhotography #DocumentaryPhotography #Photojournalism #ConflictPhotography #1960sPhotography #BlackAndWhitePhotography #HistoricalPhotography #LimitedEditionPhotography #PhotographicArchive #CollectiblePhotography #20thCenturyPhotography
Seller's Story
My father, Michael Joseph, was a London-based advertising photographer, active from the mid-1960s to the early 1990s, and best known for his photographs for the Rolling Stones’ Beggars Banquet gatefold.
My continuing mission is to share what we affectionately call “the other photographs”: the lesser-known treasures from his extraordinary archive — original darkroom prints, test prints, alternative frames from major shoots, his celebrated group compositions, and more intimate, personal images.
For this special Solo Seller Auction, I am particularly excited to include a selection from Michael’s 1964 Vietnam archive — photographs that have never previously been seen or offered for sale. These remarkable images reveal a very different side of his work, made when he was just 23 years old.
Alongside Michael’s authentic vintage darkroom prints, I am also presenting a new generation of works: striking prints on aluminium and my own handmade cyanotypes, created from his original negatives and transparencies in the Dordogne sunshine. Some are made on vintage photographic paper retrieved from Michael’s own working library, bringing the archive quite literally into a new generation.
Together, the collection brings photographic history and contemporary experimentation side by side — from unique vintage prints made by Michael himself to bold new interpretations of his remarkable archive.
I hope you enjoy discovering these photographs as much as I enjoy bringing them to light — sometimes preserved exactly as Michael made them, sometimes given an entirely new life.
All works are carefully protected and packed with the attention appropriate to collectible photographic artworks.
For US buyers: customs duties and applicable import charges are paid at source and included in the shipping cost. No additional charges should normally be payable on delivery, subject to any change in regulations.
Translated by Google TranslateDetails
Date of print
1964
Artist
Michael Joseph (1941-)
Sold by
Direct from the artist
Title of artwork
Saigon Helicopter Landing, Vietnam 1964
Condition
Extremely fine
Technique
C-Print
Height
30 cm
Edition
Limited Edition C-type print, signed by the artist
Width
40 cm
Signature
Hand signed
Genre
Military and war
Sold by
