Helmar Lerski - Köpfe des Alltags ('Everyday Heads. Unknown People') - 1931

THIS IS THE LAST EXCLUSIVE PHOTOBOOK AUCTION by 5Uhr30.com in 2025 -
with more than 100 great lots from my personal collection and from recent acquisitions.

SCARCE OPPORTUNITY to purchase one of the MOST IMPORTANT and one of the MOST SOUGHT-AFTER photobooks ever published (1931).

-Martin Parr, The Photobook vol 1, page 130/131
- Andrew Roth, The Book of 101 Books, page 68/69
- The Open Book , Hasselblad Center, page 98/99
- 802 photo books from the M. + M. Auer collection, page 172

HERE IN THE MUCH MORE UNCOMMON, SPECTACULAR VARIANT WITH SPIRAL BINDING (the bounded version is much more common).

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Fantastic portraits by Helmar Lerski (1871-1956, pseudonym of Israel Schmuklerski), Swiss avant-garde portrait photographer, film director, cameraman and author.
Before becoming one of the pioneers of photography and film in Palestine, Helmar Lerski was an innovative photographer in the United States from 1911 and a leading figure of the avant-garde in Berlin in the 1920s and 1930s.
In his photography, primarily portraits and influenced by theatre and cinema, he pursued his own, unique exploration of the expressive possibilities of light.

Helmar Lerski was a Swiss photographer and filmmaker who laid some of the important foundations of modern photography. His works are on display in the USA, Germany, Israel and Switzerland. He focused mainly on portraits and the technique of photography with mirrors.

The term avant-garde is used when an artist takes an innovative and experimental approach to one aspect of their art. The avant-garde in photography takes a critical stance towards existing aesthetic views.
It is important to understand that avant-garde refers to an artistic movement that challenges existing aesthetic norms and seeks new forms of expression.

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Verlag Hermann Reckendorf, Berlin, 1931. First and only edition, first and only printing.

Original hardback with original full black cloth and spiral binding. 230 x 292 mm. 176 pages. 80 black and white photographs. Photos: Helmar Lerski. Introduction by Curt Glaser. Text in German.

Condition:
Book inside well-preserved, fresh and clean with no marks and with no foxing; only neat missing part at the bottom of the title page (marginal only, see picture), no other remarkable flaws or defects. Outside quite fresh with normal trace of use; rubbed at the top and at the bottom of spine, spine like so often a bit sunned, crease at the bottom right corner of the front (with no consequence for inside). Overall in fine, better than usual condition.

VERY SCARCE VINTAGE German photobook from 1931 (!).
This title was published in two different versions same time - bounded and with spiral binding (like here).

'After working as a film cameraman for nearly a decade, in 1928 Lerski was preparing to return to portrait photography. Now he was interested in depicting artists, intellectuals, and very important persons from cultural and political spheres. Between 1929 and 1931 his images appeared in 'Vogue', 'Die Dame', 'die neue linie', 'Scherl's Magazine', 'Sport I'm Bild', and 'Die Weite Welt'. After a twelve year hiatus, the photographer managed once again to gain public recognition extremely quickly.
During this period Lerski's studio (and living quarters) were frequented not only by celebrities, but also by unknown models. The unknowns were often unemployed workers, sent over by the unemployment office. Thus, he initiated his series 'Köpfe des Altags' ('Everyday Faces').
With a cut-out, an optical close-up, he tried to capture the essence of a face: eyes, nose, mouth. However, it was not recognizable features, not the individual appearance of his models with interested Lerski, but rather the undefinable, the "inner structure", which he hoped to "illuminate and penetrate", by utilizing a technical medium, a materialist method of image making.'
(Gallery Gary Tatintsian)

'Helmar Lerski used mirrors to illuminate his subjects during the sittings, yielding dramatic results. Though almost unknown to the public at large, he is considered one of the most important portrait photographers of the 20th century. 150 modern digital enlargements of negatives from the Israel Museum's collection, most of them never shown before, are on display in this exhibition. These portraits were taken between 1932 and 1948, when Lerski resided in Palestine and documented pioneers, both men and women, at work. Most of the images feature laborers, with a special emphasis on their hands. As an expression of the importance of creative labor, they underline Lerski's Romantic-Socialist ideology.'
(The Israel Museum, Jerusalem)