Wulf Diether Graf zu Castell - Chinaflug (中國飛行) - 1938

Wulf Diether Graf zu Castell
CHINAFLUG
中國飛行

An extremly scarce, very sought-after photobook in near perfect condition

As featured in:
Martin Parr, The Chinese Photobook: From the 1900s to the Present, pp. 70–71.

Atlantis-Verlag, Berlin 1938
1st edition
192pp. in b/w photogravure printing

Aerial photography of all regions of China, including cities like Beijing and Shanghai, villages and landscapes. Very advanced for its time in terms of photography. A historical document of pre-industrial China.

Wulf- Diether Graf zu Castell was a famed German aviator with a life-story out of a romance novel. At age 23, he married his first wife Hildegard Princess of Hanau. At 25, he was commissioned by Deutsche Lufthansa to establish a continuous air traffic network in China. It was during flights around China that he took the aerial photographs that eventually became "China Flight" published in 1938. He later established a Berlin-Shanghai air route, then the longest in the world for regular flights, was shot down over Moscow and eventually became chief administrator overseeing German airports. The photographs in this book were taken over a 3 year period between 1933-1936. There are some tremendous photos of pre-industrial China.

Condition: Yellow linen covers with some minor traces of usage (see photos). Inside flawless. Binding good and tight, pages clean without marks, kinks, creases or else. Great print quality. Excellent and fresh. A well-preserved copy. Collectible.