BLUM, Kurt: Pictures of a Factory, 1959

BLUM, Kurt, Pictures of a Factory. / Photographs by Kurt BLUM. Text by Michele Parrella. Cover by Eugenio Carmi. – Zürich: Fretz & Wasmuth 1959. – 28,5 x 23,0 cm. [16] S. Text, [104] S. mit 101 Tiefdruck-Abb., Beiblatt «List of illustrations». Halbleinenband illustriert. Ohne Schutzumschlag erschienen. 


Blum was the subject of a 2012 retrospective at the Swiss Foundation for Photography . Immagine di una fabbrica is included in 802 Photo Books. A selection from the M+M. Auer collection "Kurt Blum (1922-2005), who was born in Berne, was one of the outstanding Swiss photographers of the post-war era. In addition to numerous stories for illustrated magazines, as of the 1950s he also did free artistic and experimental works which were presented to a wider public in exhibitions and publications. The focal points of his oeuvre were the artists’ portraits he took as of the late 1940s, larger work groups on the themes of dance and opera, and an intense involvement through photography and film with the world of industry and labor. Blum always regarded himself as an artist, however, and strove for photography to be recognized as an independent art medium. Above and beyond the documentary aspect, he sought subjective expressiveness, the atmospherically dense moment, the consciously composed photographic print. Blum thus belonged to the avant-garde of Swiss photography, so it is not surprising that he also played a role in the 'subjective photography' circle around Otto Steinert in Germany in the early 1950s....Kurt Blum worked for large industrial companies in northern Italy, leading in 1959 to the book Pictures of a factory (German title Lebendiger Stahl, 1960), in which he presented an almost infernal image of a steel works, sparks flying, by means of black-and-white photographs rich in contrasts"--Swiss Foundation for Photography 




For CEO’s Only is a selection of international company photobooks from the private collection of professional photographer Bart Sorgedrager, based in Amsterdam. Research assistant Clara Jankowski (MA Master Photographic Studies, Leiden University) has compiled a bibliography and captions for this particular selection of company photobooks and is presented in the exhibition as FOR CEO’S ONLY (alluding to the title of a company photobook by Richard Avedon for M&A Group in New York).

For CEO’s Only is a selection of international company photobooks from the private collection of professional photographer Bart Sorgedrager, based in Amsterdam. Research assistant Clara Jankowski (MA Master Photographic Studies, Leiden University) has compiled a bibliography and captions for this particular selection of company photobooks and is presented in the exhibition as FOR CEO’S ONLY (alluding to the title of a company photobook by Richard Avedon for M&A Group in New York).

For CEOs Only

AVEDON, Richard

CRAY at Chippewa Falls
Publisher: Cray Research, Inc., Minneapolis
Year of publication: 1987
Binding: hardcover (linen cloth; pasted label on front panel)
Size: 310 x 300 mm
Number of pages: 96
Number of illustrations: 79 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: photo reportage; documentary photography
Printer: Franklin Graphics, Inc., Nashville
Type of reproduction: offset lithography
Print run: 5000
Photography:Lee Friedlander
Text: Stuart Klipper (afterword)
Type: commemoration book (15 year anniversary)
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

‘In 1986 Cray Research, Inc. invited American master photo grapher Lee Fried lander (1934) to create a photo-illustrated book commemorating the company’s 15th anniversary. Friedlander took these photographs at Cray Research, Inc., Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, birthplace of the Cray-1 supercomputer—then the fastest computer in the world. The book includes a range of subjects shot in Friedlander’s characteristic style: sober images of shop fronts and empty streets, views of the landscape and underbrush surrounding Chippewa Falls and close-up shots of workers. The result was a landmark visual record documenting the assembly of this awe-inspiring supercomputer and the people who made it.’ From: https://museum.stanford.edu/news_room/friedlander.html

Pictures of a factory
Publisher: Fretz & Wasmuth Editions, Zürich
Year of publication: 1961 (2nd edition); 1959 (1st edition)
Binding: hardcover
Size: 285 x 230 mm
Number of pages: 102
Number of illustrations: 101 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: documentary photography
Printer: Fretz Brothers Ltd. Zürich, Switzerland
Type of reproduction: photogravure
Photography: Kurt Blum
Text: Michele Parrella
Type: promotional book
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

‘Kurt Blum [1922-2005] worked for large industrial companies in northern Italy, leading in 1959 to the book Pictures of a factory (reprinted in German language in 1960, title: Lebendiger Stahl), in which he presented an almost infernal image of steel works, sparks flying, by means of black-and-white photographs rich in contrasts. Above and beyond the documentary aspect, he soughtsubjective expressiveness, the atmospherically dense moment, conscious composedphotographic print. Blum belonged to the avant-garde of Swiss photography, so it is notsurprising that he also played a role in the “subjective photography” circle around Otto Steinert in Germany in the early 1950s.’ From: Swiss Foundation for Photography

Henkel
Publisher: Henkel & Cie GmbH, Düsseldorf
Year of publication: 1951
Binding: hardcover (linen cloth)
Size: 285 x 237 mm
Number of pages: 72
Number of illustrations: 34 color photographs
Type of illustrations: photo reportage; archival photography
Printer: A. Bagel, Düsseldorf
Type of reproduction: offset
Photography: Henkel Archive
Text: H.C. Hugo Henkel (prologue)
Type: commemoration book (75 year anniversary)
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

This commemoration photobook celebrates the success story of a family business in chemical products that involved three generations across 75 years. The introduction tells the reader the story from Dr. Hugo Henkel’s (1881-1952) point of view. He embodies the third generation in the family business and describes how the factory began as a playground for him and later became his laboratory. His grandfather Fritz Henkel founded the company in 1876 in Aachen. Hugo Henkel became the first chemical engineer within the business. After 70 years of labor Henkel is looking back on the progression and innovation of their company. A new generation is about to take over. The layout is straightforward with on every left page a few lines of text and on the right page a bleeding image, sometimes with white bars on the bottom or on the upper side of the page. Because most of the photographs are highly retouched, everything depicted looks spotless and bright, even dark interiors like the shop floor.

Câbleries et tréfileries de Cossonay [Cables and wires of Cossonay]
Publisher: Câbleries et Tréfileries De Cossonay, Cossonay
Year of publication: [1972]
Binding: hardcover
Size: 280 x 240 mm
Number of pages: 72
Number of illustrations: 53 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: abstract and documentary photography
Printer: Jean Genoud, Lausanne
Type of reproduction: photolithography
Photography: Marcel Imsand
Type: commemoration book (50 year anniversary)
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

Câbleries et tréfileries de Cossonay is the result of a cooperation between photographer Marcel Imsand (1929) and the Swiss cable and wire company. This company photobook was produced in the French-speaking section of Switzerland; the publication of company books in that area has developed slower than in the German region. Marcel Imsand received much artistic freedom from the company, reflected in some of the chapter’s titles in the book: ‘Human’, ‘Machine’ and ‘Material’. Imsand photographed wires and cables to place emphasis on repetition, lines and form and thereby created visually rhythmic sequences. The selection of large images and use of full bleed, across the bind seam and in different sizes, create a dynamic design to complement the objects depicted. Imsand’s signature is explicit: black & white, coarse grain, close ups and expressive abstract photographs.

PROGRES [PROGRESS]
Publisher: Société anonyme Manufacture Belge de Lampes et de Matériel Électronique, Brussels
Year of publication: 1966
Binding: hardcover (linen cloth with pattern in relief)
Size: 325 x 237 mm
Number of pages: 226
Number of illustrations: 61 black & white photographs; 5 color
Type of illustrations: photo collages; abstract and portrait photography
Printer: l’Imprimerie Wellens-Pay, Brussels
Type of reproduction: photogravure
Print run: 5000
Photography: Jacques Richez
Design: Jacques Richez
Text: Lucien Massart (introduction); André Maurois; Harry Melville; e.g.
Type: commemoration book
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

This book contains an historical resume, suggesting that illustrious men have been determining progress for all of mankind. The book attributes modern society to the invention of electricity. Electronic devices play a major role in everyday life. Jacques Richez (1918) was a gifted designer, draughtsman and experimental photographer. With his skills he added new dimensions to drawing and photography. PROGRES is exceptional in terms of size, color, typography and layout, tactility and shape. The book is richly illustrated with portraits, handwritten notes, line drawings and photo collages on sturdy metallic paper. Richez created subdivisions within the book by using different types of paper: matted or glossy, thick or thin. The result is a luxurious edition with a futuristic touch. The book includes texts from memorable philosophers and scientists. PROGRES was made in commemoration of Marcel Hublou and commisioned by Société anonyme Manufacture Belge de Lampes et de Matériel Électronique.

75 Jahre Brown Boveri 1891-1966
Publisher: Brown Boveri & Cie., Baden
Year of publication: 1966
Binding: hardcover (faux leather; black spine on cream board)
Size: 243 x 240 mm
Number of pages: 290
Number of illustrations: 77 black & white photographs; 147 color
Type of illustrations: archival, historical, product landscape and documentary photography
Printer: Conzett & Huber, Zürich
Type of reproduction: offset
Photography: Otto Daettwyler; Werkarchiv
Design: Pit Günter
Text: Peter Rinderknecht; Otto Mittler
Type: commemoration book (75 year anniversary)
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Swiss electrical engineering company, Brown Boveri & Cie published this comme moration book. The publication contains an historical overview from 1891 until 1966. The content focuses on expansion, development and corporate accomplishments. Both French-language and English-language editions were published. The book is divided into three sections: historical overview, company formation, and the human dimension of the industry. The book contains a wide variety of types of illustrations: from factual graphs to archival images. The cover contains a minimal line illustration. Most of the pictures taken in the factory halls were made with flashlight exposure, resulting in images appear like staged photography, comparable to the suspense tangible in the photographs by the Canadian artist Jeff Wall (1946). Text and image are evenly balanced in a mosaic layout. Brown Boveri & Cie produced a wide range of industrial products: electrical motors, generators, steam and gas turbines, and transformers.

150 Jahre Habig
150 years Habig
150 ans Habig
Publisher: Busche, Dortmund
Year of publication: 1959
Binding: hardcover (satin cloth; spiral; first sheet transparent plastic; one foldout)
Size: 240 x 170 mm
Number of pages: 84
Number of illustrations: 35 black & white photographs; 22 color
Type of illustrations: company profile; aerial photographs; photo collage; documentary and
commercial photography
Type of reproduction: offset
Photography: Eick Emsdetten; H. Harz; Aero-lux
Design: E. Zander
Text: Heinrich Haber Jr.
Type: commemoration book (150 year anniversary)
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

This little commemoration book was published on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the German fabric company Habig. The satin cover is made with a fabric design from the Habig collection: red, yellow and white stripes on a black background. The pages are interspersed by thick matted paper every time in a different pastel color. The bright retouched color photographs reflect the fabrics made in the factory. The book contains many nearly page-filling illustrations. The accompanying texts are often witty and ironic in nature, such as: ‘The pensioner. Looking into the evening does not symbolize the end.’

Kupferhammer Grünthal Vierhundert Jahre deutscher Arbeitskultur [Kupferhammer Grünthal 400 Years
of German Work Culture]
Publisher: C G Röder, Leipzig
Year of publication: 1937
Binding: hardcover (linen cloth; engraved emblem on cover)
Size: 305 x 230 mm
Number of pages: 140
Number of illustrations: 50 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: landscape, portrait and documentary photography
Photography: Albert Renger-Patzsch
Design: C G Röder
Text: Ernst von Laer
Type: commemoration book (400 year anniversary)
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

This company book was made for the 400th anniversary of the sheet copper working firm of F A Lange in 1937, and according to Gerry Badger it contains some of Albert Renger-Patzsch’s (1897-1966) finest work. ‘Kupferhammer Grünthal is a sumptuously produced book, demonstrating the full range of Renger-Patzsch’s talents, and revealing an eye that was none too adventurous, but always interesting.’ (Parr; Badger, 2006: 186) The book depicts a workers community as well as landscapes and portraits. The combination of types of photography that Renger-Patzsch applied create an in depth visual documentary study. The style the photographer embraced has been considered a forerunner of the studies Paul Strand made of various European communities in the 1950s and 1960s. See also: Badger, Gerry & Martin Parr (ed.), The Photobook: A History volume 2, Phaidon Press, London: 2006

Henschel Lokomotiven
Publisher: Henschel & Sohn A.G., Kassel
Year of publication: 1931
Binding: hardcover (linen cloth with title and logo in relief; three foldouts)
Size: 300 x 215 mm
Number of pages: 160
Number of illustrations: numerous black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: product and landscape photography
Printer: Röderdruck, Leipzig
Type: promotional catalogue
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

Henschel Lokomotiven contains different models of locomotives and engines produced by the firm with the same name. The book provides a grand tour of the world of locomotives built by the company intended for export. The book has the appearance of a collector’s guide. Henschel’s products are sold within Germany as well as internationally; the models of locomotives are ranked by country. Every page contains multiple images: one background image and smaller-framed photographs in front. The layout has a wide variety of style interventions: double spreads, bleeding images, images with duotone color layers, and a bold upper cast typeface. On three foldouts cross sections of locomotives are displayed.

Wetzlar und die Stahlwerke Röchling-Buderus A.G. [Wetzlar and the Steel Mills Röchling-Bunderus A.G.]
Publisher: Röchlingstahl, Wetzlar
Year of publication: 1965
Binding: hardcover (plastic cover; inside work glued to the cover)
Size: 150 x 220 mm
Number of pages: 40
Number of illustrations: 35 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: company profile; (urban) landscape and documentary photography
Printer: W. Bechstein, Wetzlar
Type of reproduction: offset
Type: promotional book
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

This small publi cation, Wetzlar und die Stahl werke Röchling- Buderus A.G., places the steel mills central in the history of Wetzlar by introducing the small town and zooming in on the factory and the shop floor. The hard plastic oblong cover is illustrated with a map of Wetzlar that gives the impression of the steel mills as a tourist attraction. The first spread shows a collage of laborers leaving the factory after work; the background image is a birds-eye view on the factory printed on an olive green stripe pattern. The booklet contains illustrations in a variety of sizes most of which are overlaid with red and yellow color fields. The book concludes with a direct message to the reader: The quality of the product is its selling point; this is what the company explicitly wants to communicate.

Du, Mensch…[You, Creature…]
Publisher: Huber & Co. AG., Frauenfeld
Year of publication: 1962
Binding: paperback
Size: 218 x 225 mm
Number of pages: 47
Number of illustrations: 49 black & white photographs; 1 color
Type of illustrations: product, commercial and documentary photography
Type of reproduction: offset
Photography: Jürg Klages; Beringer & Pampaluchi; Conzett & Huber; e.g.
Design: Jürg Klages, Zürich
Text: Willi Fava, Frauenfeld
Type: promotional book
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

Du, Mensch… is a nearly square and thin publi cation about the origins and the usage of different types of leather. Consis tently, images of animals and nature are juxtaposed to those of human beings and leather products. The book consists of anthropological images and product photography, mostly cut out in black & white. Photographer and designer Jürg Klages (1924) used horizontal primary colored bars intersecting with the images. Some of his photographs suggest a tactile quality referring to leather. In a poetic and moralizing manner the reader is narrated from Eskimos to Africans and from the prairie to the desert. The story concludes with the prophetic note that leather is an indispensable product worldwide and essential to human beings now and in the future.

Peugeot Fréres, berceau des entreprises Peugeot [Peugeot Brothers, a cradle of enterprises by Peugeot]
Publisher: Peugeot et Cie, Valentigney
Year of publication: 1953
Binding: soft cover (with folded cardboard jacket)
Size: 280 x 215 mm
Number of pages: 71; 1 fold out
Number of illustrations: 98 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: company profile; documentary photography
Photography: Robert Doisneau
Design: Jean Vallée
Text: Pierre Mac Orlan (preface)
Type: yearbook
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

With the publication of this yearbook the longstanding French car company Peugeot proclaims international success. However the emphasis of the publication is not about car models. The geographical and historical roots of Peugeot Fréres are the starting point, from there the reader is introduced to the industrial manufacturing of a diversity of products, e.g., steel strips for dressmaking, saws and springs for watch making. The gold pasted label on the cover and the two golden emblems inside gives the book allure. The designer Jean Vallée integrates texts and photographs by way of blue triangle text balloons. The photographs, made by French renowned professional photographer Robert Doisneau (1912-1994), vary in size and position on the page; some overlap in a mosaic-like layout.

Unanimite [Unanimity]
Publisher: Société Anonyme André Citroën, Paris
Year of publication: [1968]
Binding: soft cover (saddle stitched)
Size: 230 x 328 mm
Number of pages: 20
Number of illustrations: 27 color photographs
Type of illustrations: street photography
Printer: Delpire Publicité, Paris
Type of reproduction: offset
Photography: William Klein
Type: promotional catalogue
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

Citroën - producer of among the most avant-garde car designs ever marketed on a main stream basis - collabo rated regularly with author photographers, which over the years included Henri Cartier-Bresson, Jean-Paul Goude, and Marc Riboud. Following his key publication New York 1954-1955 (1956) William Klein (1928) photographed Unanimite with a snapshot approach. For this catalogue, Klein zoomed in on the futuristic, aerodynamic design elements that made the DS [DS stands for Déesse and means Goddess in French] one of the most unique cars ever made. Klein photographed the gracious French DS model in New York City and by doing so he suggests similar characteristics between the car and the metropolis. Klein’s photographs depict movement as a metaphor of speed. Velocity is reflected in the layout: with diagonally text captions, big tilted images and repeated circles with flag patterns of the export countries. See also: http://bintphotobooks.blogspot.nl/2008/04/william-klein-french-goddess-citron-ds.html

Nestlé, usine de Saint-Menet, Marseille [Nestlé, factory in Saint-Menet, Marseille]
Publisher: Les Presses de Draeger Frères, Montrouge
Year of publication: 1959
Binding: paperback (folded cardboard with pattern in relief)
Size: 285 x 240 mm
Number of pages: 50
Number of illustrations: 22 black & white photographs; 27 color
Type of illustrations: company profile; documentary, landscape and product photography
Type of reproduction: letter press printing
Photography: Draeger; Nestlé Collection; Roger Viollet
Design: Ferry and Barbot
Type: promotional book
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

The Swiss nutrition multinational Nestlé published a promotional book on their chocolate and Nescafé factory in Saint-Menet, near Marseille. The publication introduces the picturesque town Saint-Menet, followed by a view on the industrial complexes and concludes with a report on the fabrication of chocolate and Nescafé. The illustrations are varied: black & white exterior and interior photographs, photographs of coffee roasters, machines for rotating and equalizing the chocolate paste, and large piles of Nescafé packages. Some of the photographs are coated with a single primary color. With one exception, all color photographs are manually pasted to the inside work. In addition to the photographs, the book contains two detailed illustrations of the cacao plant and the coffee plant: the natural resource of chocolate and Nescafé.

Renault Yvon and Volkswagenwerk Wolfsburg
Binding: folded cassette (with front window; photographs printed as postcards inside)
Size: 70 x 94 / 70 x 94 mm
Number of pages: 20 / 16
Number of illustrations: 20 / 16
Type of illustrations: company profile; documentary photography
Type of reproduction: gelatin silver print on picture postcards
Type: promotional book
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

Renault Yvon and Volkswagenwerk Wolfsburg are two of a kind: a pack of, respectively, twenty and sixteen small souvenir postcards that nowadays can be found in large amounts at antiquarian markets. Because these peculiar objects are not photobooks they are an exception to the rule in this exhibition. These miniatures come across as merchandise meant for the tourist branch. The photographic series on the two biggest European car companies are practically the same. The postcards give insight into the operational car industry processes from raw materials to end product: an aerial overview, the machines to paint and presses to weld the body parts, labour on the shop floor, the final product Renault CV4 and VW Bug. A descriptive caption on the backside of each card explains what is depicted on front.

Le Confort au Palais et dans les Appartemens [Comfort in Palais and Appartments]
Publisher: La Société Générale de Fonderie, Paris
Year of publication: 1931
Binding: paperback (hand silk paper; cover with engraved ornaments)
Size: 240 x 320 mm
Number of pages: 92
Number of illustrations: 52 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: photomontage; documentary photography
Printer: SOC, Paris
Type of reproduction: photogravure
Print run: 1000
Photography:[Germaine Krull]
Text: Gosselin Lenotre; Paul Reboux; Marcel Provost; e.g.
Type: promotional book
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

Le Confort au Palais et dans les Appar temens is a luxurious, large-size publi cation by La Société Générale de Fonderie a company in household equipment like bold heating ovens. The first half of the book contains four fiction stories written by Gosselin Lenotre, Paul Reboux, Marcel Provost, and Pierre Mac Orlan. The first page of each short story is juxtaposed with a color drawing pasted on the left page. The stories are printed on hand silk paper. The second half of the book encloses a series of densely printed full bleed photographs with intersecting bracts in between some of the pages. The series of photographs consist of photomontages and close-ups; all photographs are shot in a dramatic modernist style. The photographs are generally ascribed to the German photographer Germaine Krull (1897-1985). Krull lived in Paris between 1926 and 1928, and is known for her seminal industrial photobook Métal (1928).

GEO
Publisher: Géo Foucault & Schweitzer, Paris
Year of publication: [1930s]
Binding: paperback (bound by a cord)
Size: 175 x 112 mm
Number of pages: 210
Number of illustrations: 42 black & white photographs; 62 color
Type of illustrations: product and architecture photography
Type of reproduction: offset
Type: promotional catalogue
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

GEO appears like a no-nonsense booklet about the different types of meat the factory produces. The book consists of two parts; clearly divided by different types of paper. The first part contains detached black & white interior and exterior photographs of the factory. The second part continues with product photography and includes cut-outs in vivid colors. The chunks of meat are displayed within an ornamental frame. Not only ham and sausages are presented, but also cans with paté and pots with pickles are displayed. The book is loosely bound with a cord and two perforations; only the right pages are printed. Either a one centimetre white bar or an ornamental frame consistently formats each of the photographs on these pages throughout the booklet.

Newsprint
Publisher: International Paper Sales Company Inc., Montreal, Canada
Year of publication: 1939
Binding: hardcover
Size: 345 x 268 mm
Number of pages: 74
Number of illustrations: 84 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: documentary photography; photo collage
Type of reproduction: photogravure
Photography:Margaret Bourke-White; H.F. Kells; Edward J. Herbert; e.g.
Type: promotional book [40 year anniversary]
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

Newsprint is a photo book pur sang, compiled of docu mentary photo graphy. This publi cation contains hardly any text. The subtitle explains precisely what the book is about: ‘A book of pictures illustrating the operations in the manufacture of paper on which to print the world’s news’. A series of photographs by famous American woman photographer Margaret Bourke-White (1904-1971) shows the reader the production process from lumbering to sawmill, from pulp to the final product: newsprint. Besides the production process Bourke-White also focuses on the employees of International Paper Sales Company. The book consists almost entirely of large-size printed photographs: some are full spread, others contain white bars on top or bottom and in some cases overlapping and bleeding images. Bourke-White used high contrast black & white photography and emphasized in her pictures both the force of the elements of nature with the force of man-made machines.

Les Nouvelles Messageries de la Presse Parisienne [The New Message from Presse Parisienne]
Publisher: N.M.P.P., Paris
Year of publication: 1960
Binding: hardcover (linen cloth)
Size: 320 x 245 mm
Number of pages: 62
Number of illustrations: 51 black & white photographs; 5 color
Type of illustrations: company profile; documentary photography
Printer: Draeger Frères, Montrouge
Type of reproduction: offset
Photography: Édouard Boubat
Design: Pierre Faucheux
Text: Antoine Blondin
Type: promotional book
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

On first impression, the publication of Presse Parisienne looks, in terms of size, cover and layout, like a children’s book: colorful and set in a large typeface. However, this is illusionary. The main part of the book is about the daily distribution of a newspaper. With a daily press run of over three million copies, it needed a large distribution network. The visual narrative in Les Nouvelles Messageries de la Presse Parisienne is chronological and shows the production of Presse Parisienne as if it were a life cycle with time as its only enemy. The book design echoes the dynamic of a venturous company, resulting in a variety of image sizes, paper and little text. Sheets of mechanical wood paper emphasize the physical aspect of the production of a newspaper. In assigning the Paris based photographer Édouard Boubat (1923-1999), Presse Parisienne choose to depict the newspaper in a humanist manner. Boubat is fitting in the tradition of postwar humanist photography. Boubat’s photos show the daily newspaper as a communication tool and how Presse Parisienne is part of daily life.

So Entsteht ein Auto [The Making of a Car]
Publisher: Bücherei der Adlerwerke, Frankfurt
Year of publication: 1930
Binding: paperback (stitched; cover with relief)
Size: 355 x 265 mm
Number of pages: 109
Number of illustrations: 49 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: photomontage; product photography
Printer: Brönner’s Druckerei, Frankfurt
Type of reproduction: photogravure
Photography: Paul Wolff
Design: Hans Breidenstein
Text: Paul G. Ehrhardt
Type: commemoration book (50 year anniversary)
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

On occasion of the 50th anniversary of automobile manufacturer Adlerwerke the company published So Entsteht ein Auto. This title is likely the first industrial company book made by photographer Paul Wolff's (1887-1951), who studied medicine and was a pioneer in 35 mm color photography and the use of the Leica camera. This paperback edition showcased Adlerwerke’s car production in a striking Art Deco design. Most of the illustrations are photomontages. The text is printed in brown on beige paper, which contrasts effectively with the cold deep black of the images. The book is divided in six chapters and depicts historical, contemporary and future production techniques.

My trip to “Caterpillar”
Publisher: Tractor Co. Peoria, Illinois
Year of publication: [1940s]
Binding: hardcover (bound by a cord and two perforations; faux leather cover)
Size: 240 x 330 mm
Number of pages: 18
Number of illustrations: 2 black & white photographs; 18 color
Type of illustrations: company profile; group portrait (gelatin siver print)
Type: commemoration book
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

My trip to “Cater pillar” is a personal souvenir to B.F. Gephart whose name is in gold relief print on the cover. The cover is similar to the American high school yearbooks mentioned in The Photobook: A History volume two (2006) by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger. The book design appears as an old-fashioned family album: in size; full-padded whitewashed plastic cover with shiny yellow cord; glassine interleaving paper and text balloons accompanying each image. Groups who visited the world’s largest manufacturer of diesel engines, tractors and road machinery began their tour with a group portrait and each visitor was able to take this personal gift home at the end of the day. The final pages are left blank for personal notes, like in a diary.
The photographs are heavily retouched with bright colors and placed in pairs in a white frame on light blue paper.

L’uomo in fabbrica [Man in factory]
Publisher: Gruppo Fiat, Turin
Year of publication: 1971
Binding: hardcover (with paper dust jacket)
Size: 280 x 158 mm
Number of pages: 96
Number of illustrations: 92 black & white photographs; 12 color
Type of illustrations: documentary
Type of reproduction: offset
Photography: Aldo Moisio; Filiberto Rota; Enzo Isaia; e.g.
Text: Umberto Agnelli
Type: promotional book
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

In the publication L’uomo in fabbrica the automobile manufacturer Fiat expresses its affinity with its employees working on the shop floor, its focus on the importance of human workforce in factory work. A technical drawing of the Fiat 128 model is printed on the dust jacket. After a short introduction the book contains only photographs. A compilation of thumbnails, bleeding images and large images bordered with white bars show the reader a day at work in the factory. The variety in image size and the mixture of black & white and color photographs generate a dynamic flow in the visual narrative. The story begins with the employees going to work and it ends when they leave the Fiat complex; in addition, the storyline shows the fabrication of the Fiat 128. Captain of industry of the Fiat Group, Umberto Agnelli, is portrayed on the shop floor and wrote an introductory text.

Revolution im Unsichtbaren [Invisible Revolution]
Publisher: Econ-Verlag GMBH, Düsseldorf
Year of publication: 1963
Binding: hardcover (linen cloth with engraved title)
Size: 305 x 260 mm
Number of pages: 132
Number of illustrations: 26 black & white photographs; 54 color
Type of illustrations: company profile; abstract and documentary photography
Printer: H. Osterwald, Hannover
Type of reproduction: offset
Photography: Rudi Angenendt; Horst H. Baumann; Heinz Bitter; e.g.
Design: Wolf D. Zimmermann
Text: Friedrich Sieburg
Type: commemoration book (100 year anniversary)
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

The company Bayer AG was established in 1863 and originally manufactured dyestuffs, a substance for staining and coloring fabrics. In 1925 it evolved into the consolidation of Germany’s chemical industries known as IG Farben. Bayer AG first developed pharmaceuticals, dyes, acetates, fibres, insecticides, and other chemicals and, most of all, is it renowned for being the originator and first marketer of aspirin (1899). Revolution im Unsichtbaren was published on the occasion of Bayer AG’s 100th anniversary and contains full bleeding bright silver-coated images, somewhat psychedelic in nature, that display the chemical development of dyestuffs. With close-ups, little depth of field and motion blur, the visual narrative is abstract and dynamic.

“Night Trick” on the Norfolk and Western Railway
Publisher: Norfolk and Western Railway, Roanoke, Virginia
Year of publication: 1957
Binding: paperback
Size: 215 x 278 mm
Number of pages: 16
Number of illustrations: 16 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: landscape and documentary photography
Type of reproduction: offset
Photography: Ogle Winston Link
Text: Norfolk and Western Railway
Type: promotional book
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

‘This book, made for the Norfolk and Western Railway in Virginia, might not be large, but many of O. Winston Link’s (1914-2001) classic images are in there, and given fine reproduction. Link, who is formulating a vision of the United States as conservative and as precisely calculated as that of Norman Rockwell, generally creates a foreground tableau and has a train, steam blowing behind, rushing by in the background. [...] Link’s vision is, of course, a fabrication, a very persuasive one based on the idea of community. He shows the United States going about its business and leisure, keeping the commercial, social and cultural life of the country flowing as it should.’ From: Badger, Gerry & Martin Parr (ed.), The Photobook: A History volume 2, Phaidon Press, London: 2006, pp.188-189

IGNIS 25
Publisher: Rizzoli Editore, Milan
Year of publication: 1969
Binding: hardcover (paper dust jacket; logo engraved on cover)
Size: 290 x 210 mm
Number of pages: 172
Number of illustrations: 136 black & white photographs; 61 color
Type of illustrations: landscape, architectural, reportage and product photography
Type of reproduction: offset
Photography: Publifoto; Renato Padovan; Faoro and Tediosi archive
Design: Enzo Avesani
Text: Giuseppe Tanzi (ed.)
Type: commemoration book (25 year anniversary)
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

The Italian company in household equip ment, Ignis, published a photo book on the occasion of its 25th anni versary. The book has a two-part division: the first part is a historical overview in text and graphs and the second part is a visual reportage on the company. The latter is again divided in three sections: photographs of the industry, of the commercial enterprise, and a section on social life. All the color images are full-bleed spreads. The photographs that are taken inside the factory are shot with flashlight. The effect is images appearing to be staged. Because all the employers wear blue overalls and work along the assembly line the repetitive mise-en-scene in the photographs has a theatrical quality.

Facom
Publisher: Draeger Frères, Montrouge
Year of publication: 1960
Binding: paperback (spiral binding; sections divided by numbered cardboard tabs)
Size: 268 x 235 mm
Number of pages: 150
Number of illustrations: numerous black & white photographs; 9 color
Type of illustrations: company profile; product and documentary photography
Type of reproduction: offset
Photography: Mazo, St-Martin; Photocrom, Buenos-Aires
Design: Service Artistique Draeger Frères, Montrouge
Text: Facom
Type: promotional catalogue
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

Facom is a company in mechanical gear; the catalogue depicts many different types of wrenches, sockets, screwdrivers, and other hand tools. Most of the product photography is printed on black & white coated with a red tone, some of the interior photography is in the same style. For example, the store is depicted in black & white with only a cupboard in red. Another notable aspect of the design is the images along the cardboard tabs are printed as spreads, in black & white on the left page and in color on the right page.

Im Kraftfeld von Rüsselsheim [In the Force Field of Rüsselsheim]
Publisher: Knorr und Hirth, München
Year of publication: 1940
Binding: hardcover (printed linen cloth and faux leather spine; with dust cover)
Size: 220 x 210 mm
Number of pages: 219
Number of illustrations: 80 color photographs
Type of illustrations: documentary photography
Printer: Hauserpresse Hans Schaefer, Frankfurt
Type of reproduction: offset
Photography: Paul Wolff
Design and Idea: Carl T. Wiskott
Text: Heinrich Hauser
Type: promotional book
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

Im Kraftfeld von Rüssels heim was published during World War II. It took two years to finalize its produc tion, for which the publisher expressed pride on the jacket text. One of the reasons for this euphoria is that the text is written according to Nazi ideology. Another reason was the fact that Im Kraftfeld von Rüsselsheim is the first book with color reproductions of 35 mm negative film. Dr. Paul Wolff (1887-1951) used his preferred Leica camera in twelve different factories to record the industrialization of Rüsselsheim, among them: a rayon factory, a screw factory, and steel mills. Most of the factories manufactured products for the biggest car company of its time in Europe: Opel. The photo series depict mainly factory workers on the shop floor working with metal, from welding to polishing.

Omaggio Al Cappello [A Tribute to the Hat]
Publisher: Arti Grafiche Amilcare Pizzi, Milan
Year of publication: 1957
Binding: hardcover (linen cloth with embossed title; illustrated dust jacket)
Size: 292 x 255 mm
Number of pages: 150
Number of illustrations: 79 black & white photographs; 1 color
Type of illustrations: company profile; historical and portrait photography
Printer: Arti Grafische Amilcare Pizzi, Milan
Type of reproduction: offset
Text: Mario Carrieri; Giuseppe Trevisani; Massimo Vignelli (eds.)
Type: commemoration book (100 year anniversary)
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

The 100th year anniversary of the Borsalino company resulted in a bulky tribute to headdress. The publication is composed of pictures, photography and reproductions of paintings which makes it a versatile design. The dust jacket is printed on two sides: on the outside the assemblage of a hat is depicted, and hidden on the inside flaps is a photograph of the apartments of employees. The inside work is compiled of a series of reproductions of famous paintings that show people with hats. These reproductions are pasted on black pages. The second section in the book contains various humorous and fashion illustrations, with the hat as central topic. The third section displays full-page portraits of employers with a short but quite a personal history introducing each person. Omaggio Al Cappello conveys to the reader the company’s fascination for and affection with the (making of the) Italy’s famous headdress.

Die Maggi Werke [The Maggi Works]
Publisher: Maggi Gesellschaft MBH, Berlin
Year of publication: [1925]
Binding: paperback (folded binding with cord)
Size: 205 x 295 mm
Number of pages: 40
Number of illustrations: 41 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: company profile; documentary photography
Type of reproduction: offset
Design: H. Schirmer, Berlin
Type: promotional book
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

Die Maggi Werke is a publi cation on Germany’s largest food industry business: Maggi. The straight forward Art Deco book design is similar to the design of Dutch artist magazine Wendingen [1918-1932] from the same style period. The page layout and typography in this oblong publication is more prominent than the greyish photographs about the people working in the factory and the agriculture. Depicted on the photographs are the men returning from harvest, long lines of women wearing aprons and headscarves preparing cauliflower and kettles with bouillon. Except for two pages, every page contains one medium size photograph that is always off-centre. With a large typeface and decorating strips in silver along the outer edge of the pages, black strips around the photographs and blue strips along the page seam create a firm and dated Art Deco layout.

Les Cathedrales du Vin [The Cathedrals of Wine]
Publisher: Sainrapt et Brice, Paris
Year of publication: 1937
Binding: paperback
Size: 310 x 237 mm
Number of pages: 20
Number of illustrations: 11 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: documentary photography
Printer: Jacques Bazaine, Paris
Type of reproduction: photogravure
Print run: 3100 (numbered)
Photography: André Kertesz
Text: Pierre Hamp
Type: promotional book
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

Les Cathedrales du Vin is a publication on the winery Sainrapt et Brice in Paris. The large format paperback contains eleven photographs made by the Hungarian master photographer André Kertesz (1894-1985). A semi-transparent glassine interleaving paper with explanatory captions covers each photograph. The black & white illustrations have a dense quality with high contrast due to the photogravure reproduction. Kertesz captured the winery with serenity as if it were a cathedral. The dimly lit chambers are empty with deep down anonymous individuals at work. From different points of view, some frontal and some from a high or low perspective, Kertesz emphasizes the height of the winery’s interior.

Práce Je Živá [Work is Living]
Publisher: Ceská Grafická, Prague
Year of publication: 1945
Binding: hardcover (half brown cloth; photographic dust jacket).
Size: 340 x 255 mm
Number of pages: 180
Number of illustrations: 173 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: documentary photography
Type of reproduction: photogravure
Photography: Vladimir Hipman
Type: promotional book
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

Práce Je Živá is a tribute to the workforce of Czecho slovakia. This costly and volu minous
publi cation pays tribute to the industrial era and its heroic workers. The Czech photographer Vladimir Hipman was a prominent figure in the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) movement in Eastern Europe. In style and propagation of work ethos Práce Je Živá is comparable to Albert Renger-Patzsch’s Eisen und Stahl (1931) and Lewis W. Hine’s Men at work (1932). The rich photogravures display a dramatic view on industrial work published in this scarce post-war classic.

Forthcoming Spring 2014 Book about Chinese Photobooks Martin Parr WassinkLundgren Photography

La Chine à terre et en ballon; reproduction de 272 photographies, exécutées par des officiers du génie du corps expéditionnaire et groupées sur 42 [i.e. 41] planches et phototypie avec légendes explicatives (1902)

China As She Is:
A Comprehensive Album 
This auction features China As She Is: A Comprehensive Album , published in 1934 in Shanghai, China. The book provides an extensive look at prewar China. There are sections on 28 provinces of China (some provinces are grouped together; there are 23 separate chapters for the 28 provinces). Each chapter begins with one page of text giving general information about the province and its major cities followed by black & white photos of industry, agriculture, buildings, historic and religious landmarks, lakes and other natural features. The text is in English and Chinese.

Pictorial Review of the Sino-Japanese Conflict 1932

"Chairman Mao is the red sun of our hearts" - scarce illustrated album from the early period of Cultural Revolution published in July 1967 by The "People's Fine Arts Publishing House" for The "Chinese Revolution Photographic Society". The album contains 68 plates with black & white historical pictures & many affixed color photographs signed by Zhong Guo, Ge Ming, She Ying, Xie Hui, Bian Ji.

China.

“Night Trick” on the Norfolk and Western Railway
Publisher: Norfolk and Western Railway, Roanoke, Virginia
Year of publication: 1957
Binding: paperback
Size: 215 x 278 mm
Number of pages: 16
Number of illustrations: 16 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: landscape and documentary photography
Type of reproduction: offset
Photography: Ogle Winston Link
Text: Norfolk and Western Railway
Type: promotional book
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

‘This book, made for the Norfolk and Western Railway in Virginia, might not be large, but many of O. Winston Link’s (1914-2001) classic images are in there, and given fine reproduction. Link, who is formulating a vision of the United States as conservative and as precisely calculated as that of Norman Rockwell, generally creates a foreground tableau and has a train, steam blowing behind, rushing by in the background. [...] Link’s vision is, of course, a fabrication, a very persuasive one based on the idea of community. He shows the United States going about its business and leisure, keeping the commercial, social and cultural life of the country flowing as it should.’ From: Badger, Gerry & Martin Parr (ed.), The Photobook: A History volume 2, Phaidon Press, London: 2006, pp.188-189


For CEO’s Only is a selection of international company photobooks from the private collection of professional photographer Bart Sorgedrager, based in Amsterdam. Research assistant Clara Jankowski (MA Master Photographic Studies, Leiden University) has compiled a bibliography and captions for this particular selection of company photobooks and is presented in the exhibition as FOR CEO’S ONLY (alluding to the title of a company photobook by Richard Avedon for M&A Group in New York).

The heyday of Dutch industrial photography books, 1945 - 1965

Photographer Paul Huf Paul Huff: Highlights (English and Dutch Edition) once commented succinctly on his work as follows: 'They get what they ask for, but I deliver damn good work' - the very thing that makes industrial photography books so attractive. The books show work from a period during which photographers could not make a living as artists/photographers and depended on such prestigious commissions. With this highly professional approach, photographers like Violette Cornelius Violette Cornelius and Ata Kando: Hungarian Refugees 1956, Cas Oorthuys 75 Jaar Bouwen, Van ambacht tot industrie 1889-1964, Ed van der Elsken , Ad Windig Het water - Schoonheid van ons land and Paul Huf established their reputations and influenced our present-day impression of workers and entrepreneurs in the postwar Netherlands. Experimental poets and well-known writers also contributed to these books, fifty of which are on show. 'Het bedrijfsfotoboek 1945-1965. Professionalisering van fotografen in het moderne Nederland' Het Bedrijfsfotoboek 1945-1965 . 

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start a photographic library of Company Photobooks

Een eeuw Hoenderloo
Publisher: Stichting Hoenderloo, Hoenderloo
Year of publication: 1951
Binding: perfect binding
Size: 220 x 250 mm
Number of pages: 168
Number of illustrations: 52 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: documentary and staged photography
Printer: N.V. Meijer, Wormerveer (offset); Drukkerij Hoenderloo, Hoenderloo (letter press)
Type of reproduction: letter press printing
Photography: Paul Huf
Design: Charles Jongejans
Text: M.B. van de Werk (introduction); O.G. Heldring (history)
Type: commemoration book (100 year anniversary)
Collection: Jan Wingender, Leusden/the Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

Een eeuw Honderloo [A century Hoenderloo] shows a highly optimistic picture of post-war youth enjoying technical training. Daily life in the educational institute is recorded. Text sections are set in the Bodoni cursive and printed on different types of paper; photo sections are separated from text. Documentary and staged photography show aspects of education and leisure in typical Paul Huf (1924-2002) mise-en-scene, looking like small theatre plays.

NV COQ 1956: fabriek voor Hoogspannings schakelmateriaal
Publisher: N.V. COQ Fabriek voor Hoogspannings schakelmateriaal, Utrecht
Year of publication: 1956
Binding: spiral binding
Size: 240 x 260 mm
Number of pages: 60
Number of illustrations: 55 black & white photographs; 2 color
Type of illustrations: reportage; company profile
Printer: Drukkerij van Rossum, Utrecht
Type of reproduction: letter press
Photography: Nico Jesse
Design: Nico Jesse
Type: instruction book
Collection: Jan Wingender, Leusden/the Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

The visual narrative in NV COQ 1956 is set up as a tour of the company manufacturing high-voltage cables. The spiral binding is similar to that of Oranje Nassau Mijnen (1953). The edition is trilingual: Dutch, French and English.

1909 PLEM 1959
Publisher: NV Provinciale Limburgsche Electriciteits-Maatschappij PLEM, Maastricht
Year of publication: 1959
Binding: hardcover, with dust jacket
Size: 260x240mm
Number of pages: 154
Number of illustrations: 136 black & white photographs, 7 color
Type of illustrations: photo-reportage; product photography; landscape photography
Printer: Firma Boosten & Stols, Maastricht
Type of reproduction: letter press printing
Photography: Cas Oorthuys
Design: Dick Elffers and Ben Duijvelshoff
Text: L. Harpman, en P.A. Becx (editing); B. Aafjes and R. Franquinet (literary essay)
Type: commemoration book (50 year anniversary)
Collection: Jan Wingender, Leusden/the Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

Dick Elffers (1910-1990) was par excellence a designer who built on the functional typography developed by Piet Zwart and Paul Schuitema, also in the design of company photobooks. Both in De beurt is aan 1888-1955 (1955) as 1909 PLEM 1959 he applied the achievements of the New Photography in an unconventional way. Elffers considers the photographic picture as an equivalent element of a total design. In addition to the usual portraits of directors from the company archive, Cas Oorthuys (1908-1975) made documentary records and photographs of household equipment, and switchgear, as well as landscapes and cityscapes. The power plant is metaphorically represented as a fairy-tale palace from One Thousand and One Nights. Graphs are in separate sections printed on a different type of paper. The text is put into the Grotesk, Gill and Goudy. On the antiquarian market, 1909 PLEM 1959 is one of the most expensive photo books within the genre.

Plem 1909-1959 by : Martin Parr & Gerry Badger in The Photobook : A History volume II
It is a characteristic of the Dutch photobook, as it is of the Japanese photobook, that design is an important element of the total package. One of the best designed examples of the period was produced for the utility company PLEM ( Provinciale Limburgsche Electriciteits maatschappij), the electricity-generating company in the south of Holland, and it is the book's lead designer Dick Elffers, who is the driving force behind the look of the volume, even tough the photographic roster includes such distinguished names in Dutch photography as Cas Oorthuys (Oorthuys) and Koen Lenarts.

With its plethora of design 'references', the book might even be considered a prototype of the postmodern photobook, although graphic design, like fashion, was always a matter of visual appropriation. The borrowing begins with the cover, where the letters 'PLEM' are arranged in exactly the same way as the letters 'CPDE' on the cover of Man Ray's Électricite' (1931; see pages 182-83).

Another important design feature is a grid pattern that relates to the De Stijl movement of the 1930's, which numbered amongst its exponents Piet Mondriaan and Gerrit Rietveld. De Stijl was noted for its rigorous geometry and use of primary colours, and this is echoed throughout PLEM. Most notably, its piece de resistance is a two-page panorama of a power station at night, in which the space is fractured and expanded by means of red and yellow overlaid shapes.

50 jaar Bruynzeel 1897–1947
Publisher: C. Bruynzeel & Zonen, Zaandam
Year of publi cation: 1947
Binding: hardcover
Size: 330 x 260 mm
Number of pages: 130
Number of illustrations: 154 black & white photographs; 20 color (schematic drawings, pen drawings)
Type of illustrations: photo-reportage; humanist photography; company profile
Printer: Firma L. van Leer en Co, Amsterdam
Type of reproduction: offset
Photography: Carel Blazer; Eva Besnyö
Design: Jan Bons, Jaap Penraat
Text: M. Redeke [Maurits Dekker] (company history)
Type: commemoration book (50 year anniversary)
Collection: Jan Wingender, Leusden/the Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

50 jaar Bruynzeel 1897-1947 [50 year of Bruynzeel], this handsome commemoration publication is arranged according to the type of product involved – doors, kitchens and floors. The factory is presented as a living organism. Jan Bons (1918-2012) emphasized the organic structure and function of an ‘extractor system’ in the Bruynzeel factory by creating a photomontage with rough edges and colored strips of paper, a device alluding to 1920s typography. The innovative feature of 50 jaar Bruynzeel is that Carel Blazer (1911-1980) and Eva Besnyö (1910-2002) took pictures of the production process, of the relation between humans and machines, the human relations on the shop floor and even of staff relaxing after work. The style features of the New Photography seem to lend themselves to this approach. This concept of socially balanced humanism is indebted to Russian propaganda art and film. Furthermore, this jubilee book is an early example of teamwork between photographers and designers.


An excerpt from "The Photobook: A History, Volume 2" by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger:
"Almost as much as the Soviet propaganda books of the 1930s, postwar Dutch photobooks were total products. That is to say, the photographers were often just part of a larger team that included writers and graphic designers, with no single element having prominence over another.This was particularly true of company books in the 1950s and 1960s, but the trend was apparent even by the late 1940s, as seen in this fine early example of the way Dutch graphic designers eagerly grasped the opportunities that had been cut short by World War II. The photographer for 50 Jaar Bruynzeel was Carel Blazer, a leading light in the 'Underground Camera' and the radical GKf Group of documentary photographers. As such, and as a member of the Dutch Communist Party, his involvement in the production of a commercial company book may seem contradictory, but apart from the obvious reason of making a living, reconstruction was the main priority in postwar Holland, and as Bruynzeel was a timber and building products company, commerce and communism had overriding motives in common. Blazer's pictures are stolidly conventional in any case; the book's radicalism lies in its design, and the way in which the images are incorporated into the total graphic package.As is typical of many company books of the period, [this book's] ideological message presents man and machine as two aspects of a single entity. The complicated services and communications systems of the factory are compared to the human body with its arterial and neurological systems. In a famous double-page spread, ducting and pipes look like arteries or nerves, either feeding or cleaning the body corporate." (Martin Parr & Gerry Badger).

Oranje Nassau Mijnen
Publisher: NV Maat schappij tot Exploi tatie van Limburg sche Steen kolen mijnen, Heerlen
Year of publi cation: 1953
Binding: hardcover (spiral, in slipcase)
Size: 260 x 280 mm
Number of pages: 146
Number of illustrations: 163 black & white photographs; 2 color
Type of illustrations: photo-reportage; company profile; humanist photography
Printer: Th. van Rossum, Utrecht
Type of reproduction: letter press
Print run: 3535
Photography: Nico Jesse
Design: Nico Jesse
Type: commemoration book (60 year anniversary)
Collection: Jan Wingender, Leusden/the Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

NV Maatschappij tot Exploitatie van Limburgsche Steenkolenmijnen, Oranje Nassau Mijnen [O.N. Mines] for short, released this commemoration publication on the occasion of its 60th anniversary. In a visual narrative, to be characterized as pious, the sense of community among the miners is central. The print run was 3535 copies and the book was released in several foreign editions. ‘Oranje Nassau Mines’ is one of the first post-war company photobooks in which the ins and outs of a company are shown on the basis of an on-going photographic picture story. Both the photography and the layout of Oranje Nassau Mijnen are provided by medical doctor/photographer Nico Jesse (1911-1976). It is one of the few post-war company photobooks with a spiral binding; the half linen hardcover is firmly encased in a sleeve. Jesse cautiously introduced in this book the theme ‘a-day-in-the-life’ of a miner.

60 jaar ons huis: 60 jaar volksontwikkeling
Publisher: Ons Huis, Amsterdam / NV Van Munster’s Uitgeversmaatschappij
Year of publication: 1952
Binding: perfect binding
Size: 250x170mm
Number of pages: 94
Number of illustrations: 74 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: reportage; documentary photography
Printer: Senefelder NV, Amsterdam
Type of reproduction: letter press printing
Photography: Violette Cornelius
Design: Han de Vries
Text: D. Kouwenaar (introduction); G. Kouwenaar (literary essay); H.J. Barentz (company history)
Type: commemoration book (60 year anniversary)
Collection: Jan Wingender, Leusden/the Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

‘Our House’ was founded in 1892 and aimed at the improvement of the working class. Focus was on people's education and culture dissemination. The community center that stood in the middle of the Jordaan city neighborhood had a reading room; there were gymnastics, cooking and fencing classes, and academic lectures held in the center. The paperback 60 jaar ons huis; 60 jaar volksontwikkeling [60 years Our House: 60 Years People's Development] (1952) contains documentary photography by Violette Cornelius (1919-2000) on everyday life in Our House. The importance of group formation and community is central to the reportage. A realistic picture of everyday life is unusual for the early 1950s. The booklet is interleaved with red pages in a tripartite division: a retrospective, a portrait by an experimental poet and a promotional text by the center’s director.

In 1952 werd het zestig-jarig bestaan van vereniging Ons Huis gevierd. Een fraai herdenkingsboek, waaraan onder andere door Gerrit Kouwenaar werd meegewerkt, rolde van de persen. Zoals eertijds in 1893 de dame uit de aanzienlijke stand en de arbeider door Tours werden rondgeleid door het gebouw aan de Rozenstraat, zo werd ook de dichter Gerrit Kouwenaar in de gelegenheid gesteld door het gebouw in de Rozenstraat te wandelen om nader kennis te maken met het werk van de vereniging.,,Het werk van Ons Huis'', zo schreef Kouwenaar,,,is niet langer volksontwikkeling in de geijkte (en beperkte) zin, maar is pioniersarbeid, welke in het gegeven kader van 'Ons Huis' de mens in welke groep of klasse hij ook behoort. Ik dwaalde rond door het uitgestrekte gebouw. Het was een mooie voorjaarsavond. Ik keek neer op de door verlichte vensters omspannen binnenplaats, waar een groep opgeschoten jongens en meisjes volleybal speelde. Ergens achter een deur klonk een stem, die nadrukkelijk een Franse zin uitsprak, welke daarna door een jonge meisjesstem werd herhaald. Uit een ondefinieerbare richting drong een wals van Chopin tot mij door. De volleybal kletste tegen de stenen. In de huiskamer zat een groepje vrouwen rustig babbelend onder een schemerlamp. En ik dacht er aan, dat er in dit gebouw een 300 mensen bezig waren met andere, vollediger mensen te zijn, dan zij in hun gemechaniseerd nummerbestaan in fabriek of kantoor konden wezen.''(17)

Mensen van Menko: 1800 mensen fabriceren stoffen
Publisher: N.J. Menko NV, Enschedé
Year of publi cation: 1956
Binding: hardcover
Size: 290 x 210 mm
Number of pages: 87
Number of illustrations: 144 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: photo-reportage; company profile; staged photography
Printer: Bosch, Utrecht; Nederlandsche Rotogravure Mij, Leiden
Type of reproduction: letter press / copper plate printing
Photography: Nico Jesse
Design: Nico Jesse
Text: M. Verdenius (literary essay)
Type: commemoration book (100 year anniversary)
Collection: Jan Wingender, Leusden/the Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

Medical doctor-photographer Nico Jesse (1911-1976) made the reportage and carried out the staged photography as well as the design of this commemoration book Mensen van Menko [People from Menko. 1800 people manufacture textile materials] on the occasion of the centenary of textile manufacturer N.J. Menko NV in 1956. The production process runs parallel to a narrative ‘from the cradle to the grave’ and pictures of vaudeville. The layout of this picture story is similar to that in VTF 25 (1957) and Oranje Nassau Mijnen (1953). Work ethics, adaptability and concentration are central to this trilingual edition (Dutch, French, English). Staged photographs of problem situations on the shop-floor are accompanied by fictitious dialogues.

De draad van het verhaal
Publisher: Koninklijke Textielfabrieken Nijverdal-Ten Cate NV
Year of publication: 1960
Binding: hardcover (with acetate dust jacket)
Size: 310 x 250 mm
Number of pages: 76
Number of illustrations: 92 black & white photographs; 2 color
Type of illustrations: photo-reportage; humanist photography; company profile
Printer: Meijer NV, Wormerveer
Type of reproduction: letter press printing and offset
Photography: Cas Oorthuys
Design: Jurriaan Schrofer
Text: Bert Schierbeek (literary contribution)
Type: commemoration book (200 year anniversary)
Collection: Jan Wingender, Leusden/the Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

De draad van het verhaal (1960) [Thereby hangs a tale] is typically the kind of company photobook in which parallel to the company profile a visual narrative appears along the theme ‘from the cradle to the grave’. Concepts are intertwined: the industrial reportage running parallel to a broader theme that has a Family of Man-like character is a formula that was used frequently by graphic designer Jurriaan Schrofer (1926-1990) in company photobooks. Another remarkable phenomenon is the ‘staccato-style’ in the captions with the photographs, in which aspects of modern life are cited. The poet Bert Schierbeek (1918-1996) wrote in white bars below the photographs by Cas Oorthuys (1908-1975): 'The spinners are humming, the white cords gathered, divided and pulled, the fibres stretched ...Oh roll thatcotton ball; a white transparent skin out of a wrapping of clouds.’ The text is set in the Baskerville italic.

100 jaar Grasso
Publisher: Grasso’s Machinefabrieken NV, ‘s-Hertogenbosch
Year of publication: 1958
Binding: hardcover
Size: 280 x 240 mm
Number of pages: 74
Number of illustrations: 100 black & white photographs; 1 color
Type of illustrations: documentary; product photography (machines, compressed air installations)
Printer: Drukkerij Meijer NV, Wormerveer
Type of reproduction: letter press printing, offset
Photography: Violette Cornelius; Carel Blazer
Design: Benno Wissing
Text: E. Eberle (company history)
Type: commemoration book (60 year anniversary)
Collection: Jan Wingender, Leusden/the Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

100 jaar Grasso [A Century of Grasso Engineering works] is a trilingual commemoration book commissioned by Grasso’s Machinefabrieken NV in Den Bosch. The idea and concept for this book are by graphic designer Benno Wissing (1923-2008). The book consists of two parts, with the first discussing the history and application of cooling technologies and the second a history of compressed air. The people on the shop floor of this family firm hardly appear in this company book. Eugène Eberle, violinmaker and reviewer of the left-wing daily Het Vrije Volk described the history of the firm and the production process. The distinguishing feature of 100 jaar Grasso is the varying page layoutswith sometimes a number of smaller photographs and a fair amount of white space, in some cases the photographs are set opposite a large bleed – small and informative versus large and evocative.The text is set in the Baskerville. An edition prepared for the personnel is published as a paperback.

Vuur aan zee
Publisher: De Koninklijke Nederlandsche Hoogovens en Staalfabrieken NV, IJmuiden
Year of publication: 1958
Binding: hardcover cloth bound / paperback with plain celluloid dust jacket (publication for staff)
Size: 310 x 250 mm
Number of pages: 80
Number of illustrations: 46 black & white photographs; 8 color
Type of illustrations: reportage; documentary photography
Printer: Meijer NV, Wormerveer
Print run: 3000 (Dutch edition 1958); 500 (English edition 1961); reprint 1962
Type of reproduction: offset
Photography: Cas Oorthuys; Violette Cornelius; Ed van der Elsken; Paul Huf; Ata Kandó
Design: Jurriaan Schrofer
Text: Paul Rodenko (literary contribution); G.S.K. Blaauw (company history); J.F. ten Doesschate a.o.
Type: commemoration book (farewell gift director)
Collection: Jan Wingender, Leusden/the Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

In 1958 Koninklijke Nederlandsche Hoogovens and Staalfabrieken NV in IJmuiden published the photobook vuur aan zee [Fire beside the sea, was released in1961] on the occasion of the retirement of the chairman of the board, Arnold Hugo Ingen Housz. This photobook is widely regarded as a pioneering book and as exceptional in the genre in part because five, now renowned, photographers contributed with portraits of the workers and reportages of the company: Violette Cornelius, Ed van der Elsken, Paul Huf, Ata Kandó and Cas Oorthuys. A sequence of photographs, cinematic in style, and usually based on a written scenario is prominent in the photobooks designed by Jurriaan Schrofer. In vuur aan zee the designer did not aim for a linear first-person narrative, as in the photonovel Love on the Left Bank (1956). Instead, he employed a method based on a combination of pacing, rhythm, dynamics and movement. He succeeds in explaining the production process throughout the book layout. Schrofer designs highlight aspects of Hoogoven’s main production process and of the by-products, with respectively white or black bars alongside or beneath the photographs. These bars have become a trademark of designer Schrofer.

Willem Ruys. To see the world
Publisher: Koninklijke Rotterdamsche Lloyd NV, Rotterdam
Year of publication: [1961]
Binding: hardcover (cortina folded)
Size: 190x150mm (folded open 375cm)
Number of pages: 60 (with endpapers)
Number of illustrations: 23 black & white photographs, 18 color
Type of illustrations: travel reportage; documentary photography
Printer: Meijer NV, Wormerveer
Type of reproduction: offset
Photography: Carel Blazer
Design: Jurriaan Schrofer
Text: Max Dendermonde (literary contribution)
Type: promotional book (putting into service)
Collection: Jan Wingender, Leusden/the Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

Willem Ruys. To see the world is a report of a trip around the world in photographs and so far the only known post-war company photobook executed in the form of an accordion fold, the perfect shape for an ongoing visual narrative and a cinematic mode of storytelling. Vertical white bars bound the zigzag folded pages. Jurriaan Schrofer regarded the 'zig-zag-idea' as his invention. In the colophon of the publication, however, Schrofer (1926-1990) declared never to have obtained credit for this contribution. The title is printed on the cover in red or blue; in short, there are two cover versions. Also an English-language edition was published. More or less simultaneously with this booklet appears Uit en toch thuis [On the road and yet at home]: a photo pocket following the putting into service of the Willem Ruys as a cruise ship. Commissioner is the Royal Rotterdamsche Lloyd NV. Carel Blazer photographed service and recreational activities on board of the Willem Ruys, landscape and citylife between Rotterdam and Melbourne. Novelist Max Dendermonde (1919-2004) was also on board. The booklet includes two maps of the Panama- and the Suez Canal.

4 gaten in de grond
Publisher: Maatschappij tot Exploitatie der Steenkoolmijnen Laura & Vereeniging, Eygelshoven
Year of publication: 1961
Binding: sewed
Size: 250x210mm
Number of pages: 44
Number of illustrations: 40 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: reportage; company profile; graphics (map, technical drawings, statistics, circles)
Printer: Meijer NV, Wormerveer
Type of reproduction: letter press printing and offset
Photography: Carel Blazer
Design: Benno Wissing
Text: Eugene Eberle (company history)
Type: promotional book
Collection: Jan Wingender, Leusden/the Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

With regard to camera angle, print technique and size 4 gaten in de grond [4 holes in the ground] (1961) contains full bleeding images contrasting photo mosaics on adjacent pages. Graphic designer Benno Wissing (1923-2008) managed with predominantly static motives (stone and coal transport, processing to fine coal) to animate the layout. This aspect of his working method has been identified earlier in 100 jaar Grasso (1958). As 'architect' of the booklet Wissing invited a best friend, the violinmaker Eugene Eberle, whose style, similar to spoken language, seemed applicable for a promotional book. Both had, in collaboration with photographer Violette Cornelius (1919-2000), realized100 years Grasso three years earlier. After a successful collaboration on a company photobook, in a subsequent assignment the same team was formed 4 gaten in de grond is proof of that. The director of the private mining company commissioned this small booklet. The book theme focuses on people.

Tomado: wie glimlacht niet die zichzelf beziet?
Publisher: Tomado-huis, Dordrecht; Commissaris of the Queen, province Zuid-Holland
Year of publication: 1962
Binding: spiral
Size: 210 x 160 mm
Number of pages: 20
Number of illustrations: 10 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: interior; urban landscapes; in- and exterior
Printer: Vlasveld & Co, Rotterdam
Type of reproduction: letter press printing
Photography: Jan Versnel
Design: C.L.W. Wirtz; B. van den Born (illustrations)
Text: A. Buffinga, T. Schaap
Type: promotional book (putting into service)
Collection: Jan Wingender, Leusden/the Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

Tomado: wie glimlacht niet die zichzelf beziet? [who does not smile that looks at himself] is a rare example of a company photobook containing commissioned photography by Jan Versnel (1924-2007). Architecture photography is presented in this booklet with spiral band and the publication is interspersed with urban landscapes. As often in Versnel’s work, people are not central. B. van den Born made 11 comical cartoons on corporate culture.

De verbinding/The connection
Publisher: Staatsbedrijf der PTT, The Hague
Year of publication: [1962]
Binding: perfect binding
Size: 240x200mm
Number of pages: 76
Number of illustrations: 39 black & white photographs, 10 color
Type of illustrations: documentary, staged and product photography
Printer: Steendrukkerij de Jong & Co, Hilversum
Type of reproduction: offset
Photography: V. Cornelius; E. Posthuma de Boer; P. Huf; H. de Bouter
Design: Jurriaan Schrofer; Jan Bons (doodles, cartoons, atomic bomb jokes)
Text: Jan Elburg (literary contribution)
Type: promotional book (putting into service)
Collection: Jan Wingender, Leusden/the Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

Both de jong & van dam (1962) and De verbinding [ The connenction] (1962) display colloquial text and imagery. Both are printed in point-to-point varnish. The so-called quadrat prints, goodwills by Drukkerij De Jong & Co based in Hilversum, acted as stepping stones to this one-off publication launched on the occasion of the automation of the telephone network in the Netherlands. Jurriaan Schrofer (1926-1990) wrote the scenario, performed as the director and compiled a large and multidisciplinary team. The photographers Eddy Posthuma de Boer (1931) and Violette Cornelius selected pictures from their archive. Paul Huf was commissioned to making a series of staged color photographs showing phone calls between model Corinne Rottschäfer and author Herman van Eelen. Jan Bons (1918- 2012) scribbled doodels on the back cover and made illustrations of atomic bomb jokes in the inner work. Writer-poet Jan Elburg (1919-1992) wrote the connecting texts. Small portraits of the compilers are squeezed into a rotary dial on the front cover. An English-language edition was published in the same year. The booklet contains 10 folding pages; the font is Courier.

Nieuwe Matex Amatex
Publisher: Matex / Van Ommeren concern, Rotterdam
Year of publication: [1965]
Binding: paperback (square), glewed
Size: 240x240mm
Number of pages: 38
Number of illustrations: 35 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: reportage; company profile
Printer: Joh. Enschedé en Zonen, Haarlem
Type of reproduction: letter press printing and offset
Photography: Carel Blazer; Frits Rotgans a.o.
Design: Jan Bons
Text: Anonymous (informative)
Type: promotional publication
Collection: Jan Wingender, Leusden/the Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

On the basis of formal aesthetics this company booklet is of the type cinematic scenario. The layout of the English-, German- and Dutch-language publication is similar to that of de jong & van dam (1962). This state-of-the-art publication designed by Jan Bons (1918- 2012) contains panoramic photographs by Frits Rotgans (1912-1978) of Rotterdam Botlek, storage and transport, as well as pipelines. Further it contains a printed transparent page and maps on waterways.

de jong & van dam
Publisher: De Jong & Van Dam NV, Hilversum
Year of publication: 1962
Binding: perfect binding
Size: 350x260mm
Number of pages: 28
Number of illustrations: 31 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: company profile; staged, fashion and product photography
Printer: Steendrukkerij de Jong & Co, Hilversum
Type of reproduction: offset
Photography: Ed van der Elsken
Design: Jan Bons
Text: Jan Bons (company history, handwritten)
Type: commemoration publication (50 year anniversary)
Collection: Jan Wingender, Leusden/the Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

The company photobook de jong & van dam (1962) appeared in the same year as De verbinding [The connection], likewise at Steendrukkerij De Jong & Co in Hilversum in offset print and is compiled by Jan Bons (1918-2012) and Ed van der Elsken (1925-1990). Van der Elsken made some colloquial fashion photographs and a reportage incorporating the company profile. Jan Bons joined the full-page bleeding photos seamlessly. In 1960, Jan Bons and Ed van der Elsken were co-founders of the magazine Twen. Partly for this reason matches are visible between both publications: both the folio size as the font has de jong & van dam in common with this non-conformist magazine for young people. The text is set in Clarendon. Manufacturer of machine-made seamless stockings, De Jong &Van Dam in Hilversum commissioned this seminal company photobook.

Dag nieuwe dag
Publisher: Ubica Matrassenfabrieken NV, Utrecht
Year of publication: 1960
Binding: hardcover (with dust jacket)
Size: 300x230mm
Number of pages: 130
Number of illustrations: 127 black & white photographs; 63 color
Type of illustrations: company profile; documentary photography
Printer: Bakker, Zaandijk
Type of reproduction: letter press printing and offset
Photography: Cor van Weele; J.H. Hasewinkel
Design: Piet Marée(illustrations: beds, floor plans and drawings of sleeping room design)
Text: Martie Verdenius (literary contribution)
Type: promotional publication
Collection: Jan Wingender, Leusden/the Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

Dag nieuwe dag [Hello New Day] (1960), commissioned by Ubica Matrassenfabrieken NV in Utrecht and with photographs by Cor van Weele (1918-1989), has the characteristic of a product catalog. A tripartite division characterizes the photo book: first there is a visual narrative on one-day-in-the-lifeof the Dutch workforce anno1960. A second part treats the cultural historical context of the act of sleeping through the ages. Then, in a third part, the production process of mattresses is described and visualized by Piet Marée, culminating in the delivery program and design suggestions. The text is set in Baskerville.

Gouden Banden:
uitgegeven ter gelegenheid van het vijftigjarig bestaan van de Coöperatieve Condensfabriek ‘Friesland’
Publisher: Coöperatieve Condensfabriek Friesland, Leeuwarden
Year of publication: 1963
Binding: perfect binding
Size: 280x210mm
Number of pages: 64
Number of illustrations: 47 black & white photographs; 14 color
Type of illustrations: company profile; documentary photography
Printer: Meijer Offset, Wormerveer
Type of reproduction: offset
Photography: Ed van der Elsken
Design: Theo Kurpershoek
Type: promotional publication
Collection: Jan Wingender, Leusden/the Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

Not everyone lends him/herself to working in a team or on assignment, and Ed van der Elsken (1925- 1990) retained control over the composition of company photo books in which he was involved. He was a loner who loathed the making of reportages for a company profile. He preferred making loose documentary travel reportages for a movie or photo book, whether a monograph or a promotional publication concerning the dairy industry such as Gouden Banden [Golden Ties] (1963) and Wereldreis in foto’s [World Travel in Photos] (1968) was all the same to him. Typical of Van der Elsken was that he managed to achieve the corporate world to pay for his projects. Gouden Banden is a prototype of a company photo book in which social documentary (from Sweet Life, 1966) is included that does not refer to the company. The book contains grainy street photography in foreign markets of the milkfactory.

Wereldreis in foto’s 1–4 Ed van der Elsken
Publisher: Coöperatieve Condensfabriek Friesland, Leeuwarden
Year of publication: 1967-1968
Binding: perfect binding
Size: 250x250mm
Number of pages: 52
Number of illustrations: 57 bl&wh (vol1); 45 bl&wh (vol 2); 55 bl&wh (vol 3); 51 bl&wh (vol 4)
Type of illustrations: company profile; documentary photography
Printer: Meijer Offset, Wormerveer
Type of reproduction: offset
Photography: Ed van der Elsken
Design: Ed van der Elsken
Text: E. van der Elsken; J.A. van Dongen (editing)
Type: promotional publication
Collection: Jan Wingender, Leusden/the Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

Not everyone lends him/herself to working in a team or on assignment; Ed van der Elsken (1925- 1990) kept control over the composition of company photo books. He was a loner who loathed the making of reportages for a company profile; he did not do that sort of thing. He preferred making loose travel reportages for a movie or documentary photo book, whether it is a monograph or a promotional publication concerning the dairy industry, such as Gouden Banden [Golden Ties] (1963) and Wereldreis in foto’s [World Travel in Photos] (1968) was all the same to him. Typical of Van der Elsken was that he managed to achieve the corporate world to finance his projects. Wereldreis in foto’s, in 4 parts, appeared at various times. Part 1 is released in March 1967, part 4 as a New Year's gift for 1968. The company itself is not presented. The series of four photo booklets is a prototype of a company photo book in which social documentary (from Sweet Life, 1966) is included that does not directly refer to the company. The books contain grainy street photography in foreign markets of the milk factory.

BBB: bouwen en industrie; bouwen en speurwerk; bouwen en organisatie
Publisher: Bredero’s Bouwbedrijf NV, Utrecht
Year of publication: 1960
Binding: hardcover with dust jacket
Size: 270x260mm
Number of pages: 116
Number of illustrations: 120 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: company profile
Printer: Drukkerij Meijer NV,Wormerveer
Type of reproduction: letter press printing
Photography: Cas Oorthuys
Design: Dick Elffers en Bob Duyvelshoff
Text: D. Dresden; J. de Vries (editing); B. Schierbeek (literary contribution); J.J. Vriend
Type: promotional book
Collection: Jan Wingender, Leusden/the Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

BBB (1960) is typically a graphic design by Dick Elffers (1910-1990), and similar to that of another company photo book he composed that appeared a year earlier: 1909 PLEM 1959. Cas Oorthuys (1908-1975) made a company profile in a reportage, photographed the building process and research, made from studies of B2-blocks, documented completed buildings and the work field abroad. The promotional book contains functional illustrations, including schematic drawings, a graphic representation of a construction skeleton, as well as a map of Netherlands. In BBB the frequent use of primary colors directly onto the photographs derives straight from the design for IBB (1950) by Piet Zwart.

Heterogeen evenwicht
Publisher: Chemische Industrie Uithoorn NV CINDU, Uithoorn
Year of publication: 1961
Binding: perfect binding
Size: 210x240mm
Number of pages: 36
Number of illustrations: 37 black & white photographs, 12 color
Type of illustrations: company profile; urban landscapes; documentary photography
Printer: Kasteel van Aemstel, Amsterdam
Type of reproduction: letter press printing
Photography: Cas Oorthuys
Design: B. Mol
Text: J.B.I. Born; M. van Marwijk Kooy
Type: promotional publication
Collection: Jan Wingender, Leusden/the Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

Heterogeen evenwicht [Heterogeneous equilibrium] (1961) immediately stands out in the stylish characteristics of modernism in the design of the front cover. Alongside a company profile reportage of chemical industry Uithoorn NV (CINDU) Cas Oorthuys (1908-1975) delivered urban landscapes, made photographs of a blast furnace, the laboratory, flats, children in a swimming pool, storage, and form studies of vessels, petrochemical units and the application of plastics and polyesters. The booklet includes tabs and is interleaved with transparent pages. An English language reprint was published in 1965.

cavalcade: Philips world-wide
Publisher: Philips, Eindhoven
Year of publication: 1963
Binding: hardcover with dust jacket
Size: 270x280mm
Number of pages: 108
Number of illustrations: 435 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: company profile; product photography; interior/exterior
Printer: Drukkerij Meier NV, Wormerveer
Type of reproduction: letter press printing and offset
Photography: company photographers
Design: J. Schrofer and K. Nieuwenhuijzen
Text: L.P.A. Soeterboek; J.H. van Lonkhuyzen and J.Th.A. van Haaren (editing)
Type: promotional publication
Collection: Mirelle Thijsen/IPhoR, Amsterdam

Cavalcade (1963) is one of the rare examples of a company photo book directed and designed by Jurriaan Schrofer (1926-1990) that does not involve a team of photographers, or even commissioned photography by a professional photographer, but relies entirely on archival corporate photography. The book is prepared according to cinematic principles; a mounted promotional publication for Philips contains collages of product and corporate photography, photographs of lighting, sound and electronics in public buildings, telecommunications, education, in-and exteriors of hospitals. Graphic designer Schrofer was responsible for supervising the book production and compiling a color scheme for the chapters. The text is set in the Gill. The dummy of the English-language edition Cavalcade is in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and provides insight into his system typography and layout, a trademark of Schrofer, consisting of cinematic photo-strips.

The finishing touch 100 jaar Twentsche Stoombleekerij NV door Max Dendermonde en Carel Blazer
Publisher: NV Twentsche Stoomblekerij, Goor
Year of publication: 1957
Binding: hardcover
Size: 270x200mm
Number of pages: 96
Number of illustrations: 94 black & white photographs; 2 color
Type of illustrations: reportage; company profile; landscape photography and folklore
Printer: Drukkerij Meijer NV, Wormerveer
Type of reproduction: letter press printing
Photography: Carel Blazer
Design: Gerard Wernars
Text: Max Dendermonde (company history)
Type: commemoration book (100 year anniversary)
Collection: Jan Wingender, Leusden/the Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

Copywriter and novelist Max Dendermonde (1919-2004) wrote the company history for the finishing touch: 100 years Twentsche Stoombleekerij NV (1957). Carel Blazer made a company profile by way of a reportage in this factory for steam bleaching and some pictures of landscape and folklore. Because of the way the story is told, this commemoration book is both reflective of the type filmic scenario and visual narrative. The text, prepared in columns and set in Baskerville, instantaneously responds to the photography. Carel Blazer ((1911-1980) has collaborated with several designers. In addition to Benno Wissing, Gerard Wernars (1924) has been a frequent collaborator. In 1957, Blazer and Wernars compiled The finishing touch, seven years later the team put together another notable publication:Verkenning van het onbekende [Exploration into the unknown] (1964) for Royal Dutch Shell.

Staaltest. Vijf en twintig jaar van kijken & kiezen
Publisher: Röntgen Technische Dienst nv RTD, Rotterdam
Year of publication: 1962
Binding: perfect binding
Size: 230x210mm
Number of pages: 62
Number of illustrations: 16 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: company profile; documentary photography
Printer: Drukkerij Hooiberg, Epe
Type of reproduction: letter press printing
Photography: Ed Suister
Design: Charles Jongejans
Text: Jan Elburg (literary contribution)
Type: commemoration book (25 year anniversary)
Collection: Jan Wingender, Leusden/the Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

Jan Elburg (1919-1992) was a poet and lecturer at the Institute for Arts and Crafts Education in Amsterdam. His poetry was brisk and locked into the dynamics of post-war optimism as proclaimed in the company photobook. Elburg is the author of two important company photobooks published in 1962: De verbinding [The connection], commissioned by the PTT, and staal test [steel test] (1962), commissioned by the X-ray Technical Service (RTD). The commemoration book contains full bleeding images of twenty-five years of (professional) looking and choosing, tasting and testing, in everyday life. The language is proverbial and the text fragments are reproduced on thin transparent paper. The edition includes an English language academic text on the book topic.

De trein hoort erbij: Ter gelegenheid van het 125-jarig bestaan van de Spoorwegen in Nederland
Publisher: NV Nederlandse Spoorwegen NS, Utrecht
Year of publication: 1964
Binding: paperback
Size: 180x120mm
Number of pages: 160
Number of illustrations: 53 black & white photographs; 6 color
Type of illustrations: company profile; reportage; archival photography
Printer: A.W. Bruna & Zoon, Utrecht
Type of reproduction: letter press and copper plate printing
Photography: Kees Scherer; Cas Oorthuys; Hans de Boer; Dolf Toussaint; E. Salomon; J. Kamman
Design: Jaap Romijn and Gerard Douwe
Text: J. Romijn, P. Kemp; C. Busken Huet; F. Coenen; S. Carmiggelt (literary contribution)
Type: Commemoration book (125 year anniversary)
Collection: Jan Wingender, Leusden/the Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

De trein hoort erbij [The train belongs here] (1964) is one of the few commemoration books that have appeared in the form of a photo pocket published in the Bruna-pocket series. The text is set in Bembo. The captions with the photographs run through on the double pages and enhance the story line. Dynamic pictures of rail travel by Cas Oorthuys (1908-1975) are realized as part of a commission for the jubilee stamps 125 Dutch railways. Included in the pocket are numerous fashion prints, engravings, advertising posters and children's drawings on the cultural history of traveling and the introduction of the train. The editors considered the encyclopaedic form of the handy pocket as the most democratic way to show that everyone in the company is ‘in principle equal – the mechanic is as indispensable as the Director.’

Een eeuw in beweging
Publisher: Koninklijke Machinefabriek Stork NV, Hengelo
Year of publication: 1968
Binding: perfect binding
Size: 230x190mm
Number of pages: 56
Number of illustrations: 27 black & white photographs; 12 color
Type of illustrations: reportage; archival photography
Printer: Koninklijke Drukkerij G.J. Thieme NV, Nijmegen
Type of reproduction: letter press printing
Photography: Aart Klein
Design: Hans Barvelink
Text: A. Alberts (company history)
Type: Commemoration book (100 year anniversary)
Collection: Jan Wingender, Leusden/the Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

In the late 1960s photographer Aart Klein (1909-2001) and designer Hans Barvelink (1931) worked together as a steady team. The cooperation stemmed from the communal book production Holland wordt groter [Holland becomes larger] (1961). They compiled four company photo books in the period 1966-1973, including Een eeuw in beweging [A Century in Motion] (1968). In this booklet a large number of fullpage graphic images by Aart Klein is reproduced. This commissioned photo work, and photographs from the archives of the photographer and the company's, show industrial progress, daily life and leisure activities. Novelist and historian A. Alberts was the author involved in the first three publications.

Synthese: kunst hars fabriek synthese n.v. Katwijk Holland
Publisher: Kunst hars fabriek synthese n.v., Katwijk
Year of publication: [1958]
Binding: perfect binding
Size: 230 x 210mm
Number of pages: 32
Number of illustrations: 38 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: company profile; documentary photography
Printer: Drukkerij Meijer NV, Wormerveer
Type of reproduction: letter press printing
Photography: Cas Oorthuys
Design: Dick Elffers
Text: Max Dendermonde (company history)
Type: promotional book
Collection: Jan Wingender, Leusden/the Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

Synthese (1958) appeared in the same year as AKI, and has similar features and is commissioned by a factory in practically the same branche, the synthetic resin industry. The publication is typical for the signature of Dick Elffers (1910-1990) of the type photo-typo-text and is interleaved with transparent pages. The brochure contains archival photography from non-private archives, waterscapes, and reportages by Cas Oorthuys (1908-1975) on the winning of pine resin and the production of synthetic resin. Synthese includes 19 illustrations by Dick Elffers, including a city map, dots, squares, and a graphical representation of chemical structures.

Nederland Bouwt Betonwegen.

Schuitema, Paul -

Paul Schuitema & Berkel's Patent grafisch ontwerp & fotografie ...

Paul Schuitema De Vries Robbe & Co Gorinchem Gorinchem Graphic Design Company Photography

WAAR NEDERLAND TROTSCH OP IS, HOE WE TEGEN HET WATER VOCHTEN EN WAT WE ER MEE DEDEN

by Schuitema, Paul

A spread from The Stage, Maquam Press, 1999, featured in Errata Editions' Books on Books #19.

Read more: The Stage: Donigan Cumming’s Photography of the Absurd - LightBox http://lightbox.time.com/2014/03/20/photos-of-the-absurd/#ixzz2whtqTVqI

Martin Parr's Bad Weather is the debut book from Britain's most world-renown and prolific photographers. Armed with wry humor (and a water-proof camera), Parr captured the social landscape of the UK during downpours, snow storms and the most challenging elements. Published in 1982, Bad Weather has been long out of print and is one of Parr's most sought after books. Books on Books # 17 offers an in-depth study of this important photobook including a new essay by Thomas Weski called Even the Queen Gets Wet. 

Books on Books #17
Martin Parr: Bad Weather
Essays by Thomas Weski, Peter Turner, Jeffrey Ladd
Hardcover w/ Dustjacket
90 pp, 9.5 x 7 in.
50 Duotone illustrations
ISBN: 978-1-935004-33-2
$39.95
Release date: May 2014
Limited Edition Set also available








Richard Billingham's Ray's a Laugh is considered one of the most important contemporary photobooks from Britain. Centered around Billingham's working-class family who live in a cramped Birmingham high-rise tenement apartment and his father Ray - a chronic alcoholic - these candid snapshots describe their daily lives in a visual diary that is raw, intimate, touching and often uncomfortably humorous. Books on Books #18 contains every page spread from this classic book including a contemporary essay by Charlotte Cotton. 

Books on Books #18
Richard Billingham: Ray's a Laugh
Essays by Charlotte Cotton, Jeffrey Ladd
Hardcover w/ Dustjacket
108 pp, 9.5 x 7 in.
90 Color illustrations
ISBN: 978-1-935004-35-6
$39.95
Release date: May 2014
Limited Edition Set also available








Donigan Cumming's The Stage is one of the most challenging photobooks published in the last century. Collaborating with his subjects to explore a kind of psychological portraiture, Cumming created a theatre of domestic and institutional interiors peopled by the strange and eccentric. Books on Books #19 presents an in-depth study of this remarkable and little known Canadian photobook with an essay by Richard Enright called The Overwhelming Quotidian: Donigan Cumming and The Stage. 

Books on Books #19
Donigan Cumming: The Stage
Essays by Robert Enright, Jeffrey Ladd
Hardcover w/ Dustjacket
240 pp, 9.5 x 7 in.
275 Duotone & Color illustrations
ISBN: 978-1-935004-37-0
$39.95
Release date: May 2014
Limited Edition Set also available

Amsterdam! (ENG)

Old Photographs 1947-1970
Ed van der Elsken

Amsterdam! Ed van der Elsken (Vanaf 6 juni)

Mijn Amsterdammers. Vaak gabbertjes, waar je „Ha die ome Sjaak” tegen zegt, of „Tante Nel!”, of „Hee, ouwe ruigpoot”, of „Dag moppie”. Ed van der Elsken in zijn fotoboek Amsterdam! Oude foto’s 1947-1970

Tentoonstelling

Van 6 juni t/m 14 september is de tentoon stelling Amster dam! Ed van der Elsken, oude foto’s 1947-1970 te zien in het Stads archief Amster dam.

Broodjeszaak op de Jodenbreestraat, Amsterdam, ca. 1965. ©Ed van der Elsken/Nederlands Fotomuseum, courtesy Annet Gelink Gallery

Boek

Eind mei wordt het fotoboek Amsterdam! Ed van der Elsken opnieuw uitgegeven door Top Notch in samenwerking met Lecturis en Uitgeverij Bas Lubberhuizen. Top Notch is in 1995 opgericht, het platenlabel is marktleider in de Nederlandse hiphop. Ook verschijnen er regelmatig films en boeken bij het label.

Schutting

Half maart gaat de Amsterdam!-campagne van start met een metershoge bouwwand op de Nieuwendijk (ter hoogte van nummer 196), de oudste winkelstraat van Amsterdam en een werkplek voor Ed van der Elsken. Elf foto’s uit het boek zullen gedurende de werkzaamheden deze wand sieren. Vanaf dat moment is de intekening voor Amsterdam! Ed van der Elsken begonnen.

De straat op! Drie Amsterdamse straatfotografen

Van 6 juni t/m 21 september is De straat op! Drie Amsterdamse straatfotografen te zien in de centrale hal van het Stadsarchief, met recent werk van Hans Eijkelboom, Reinier Gerritsen en Theo Niekus.

Wie staan er op deze foto’s?

Wij zijn op zoek naar mensen die op foto’s staan van Ed van der Elsken, uit het boek Amsterdam!. Herkent u zich of herkent u iemand in één van de onderstaande foto’s? Of kunt u iets vertellen over de plek waar de foto is gemaakt? Wij zijn ontzettend benieuwd naar de verhalen achter deze foto’s. De informatie willen we graag gebruiken bij de voorbereiding van de tentoonstelling die 6 juni opent. Stuur uw informatie voor 30 april naar: edvanderelsken@stadsarchief.amsterdam.nl

Drie jongetjes op de Snoekjesgracht. Amsterdam, 1961 ©Ed van der Elsken/Nederlands Fotomuseum, courtesy Annet Gelink Gallery

Groenburgwal, Amsterdam, 1956 ©Ed van der Elsken/Nederlands Fotomuseum, courtesy Annet Gelink Gallery

Kermis op de Nieuwmarkt, meisje met suikerspinkapsel. Amsterdam, 1956. ©Ed van der Elsken/Nederlands Fotomuseum, courtesy Annet Gelink Gallery

De Bouwvakrellen in de zomer van 1966. Damrak, Amsterdam, 1966. ©Ed van der Elsken/Nederlands Fotomuseum, courtesy Annet Gelink Gallery

Waterlooplein nr. 100-102, Amsterdam, 1962. © Ed van der Elsken/Nederlands Fotomuseum, courtesy Annet Gelink Gallery

Photomagazine Report #6 Theo Niekus

Theo Niekus, one of Holland’s great street photographers and author of “Damrak” and “Passengers” began publishing “Report” in 2009. This magazine format monograph is a vibrant collection of street photographs. The images are printed full page without text. Each issue individually continues the series of Theo Niekus’ street photography, a life’s work. Report was originally inspired by Reportage magazine by Menno van der Koppel and Colin Jacobson, and Daido Moriyama’s equally tireless street photography photozine “Record”. Each issue is printed on a small print run of just 500 copies, each stamped on the back cover with its individual copy number.

De straat op! Drie Amsterdamse straatfotografen
Van 6 juni t/m 21 september is De straat op! Drie Amsterdamse straatfotografen te zien in de centrale hal van het Stadsarchief, met recent werk van Hans Eijkelboom, Reinier Gerritsen en Theo Niekus.

Actueel | 24 maart 2014 | Door: PhotoQ

Groot aantal Nederlandse fotoboeken in Volume III van Parr/Badger

L’uomo in fabbrica [Man in factory]
Publisher: Gruppo Fiat, Turin
Year of publication: 1971
Binding: hardcover (with paper dust jacket)
Size: 280 x 158 mm
Number of pages: 96
Number of illustrations: 92 black & white photographs; 12 color
Type of illustrations: documentary
Type of reproduction: offset
Photography: Aldo Moisio; Filiberto Rota; Enzo Isaia; e.g.
Text: Umberto Agnelli
Type: promotional book
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

In the publication L’uomo in fabbrica the automobile manufacturer Fiat expresses its affinity with its employees working on the shop floor, its focus on the importance of human workforce in factory work. A technical drawing of the Fiat 128 model is printed on the dust jacket. After a short introduction the book contains only photographs. A compilation of thumbnails, bleeding images and large images bordered with white bars show the reader a day at work in the factory. The variety in image size and the mixture of black & white and color photographs generate a dynamic flow in the visual narrative. The story begins with the employees going to work and it ends when they leave the Fiat complex; in addition, the storyline shows the fabrication of the Fiat 128. Captain of industry of the Fiat Group, Umberto Agnelli, is portrayed on the shop floor and wrote an introductory text.

For CEO’s Only is a selection of international company photobooks from the private collection of professional photographer Bart Sorgedrager, based in Amsterdam. Research assistant Clara Jankowski (MA Master Photographic Studies, Leiden University) has compiled a bibliography and captions for this particular selection of company photobooks and is presented in the exhibition as FOR CEO’S ONLY (alluding to the title of a company photobook by Richard Avedon for M&A Group in New York).

FIAT

BLUM, Kurt: Pictures of a Factory, 1959

BLUM, Kurt, Pictures of a Factory. / Photographs by Kurt BLUM. Text by Michele Parrella. Cover by Eugenio Carmi. – Zürich: Fretz & Wasmuth 1959. – 28,5 x 23,0 cm. [16] S. Text, [104] S. mit 101 Tiefdruck-Abb., Beiblatt «List of illustrations». Halbleinenband illustriert. Ohne Schutzumschlag erschienen. 


Blum was the subject of a 2012 retrospective at the Swiss Foundation for Photography . Immagine di una fabbrica is included in 802 Photo Books. A selection from the M+M. Auer collection "Kurt Blum (1922-2005), who was born in Berne, was one of the outstanding Swiss photographers of the post-war era. In addition to numerous stories for illustrated magazines, as of the 1950s he also did free artistic and experimental works which were presented to a wider public in exhibitions and publications. The focal points of his oeuvre were the artists’ portraits he took as of the late 1940s, larger work groups on the themes of dance and opera, and an intense involvement through photography and film with the world of industry and labor. Blum always regarded himself as an artist, however, and strove for photography to be recognized as an independent art medium. Above and beyond the documentary aspect, he sought subjective expressiveness, the atmospherically dense moment, the consciously composed photographic print. Blum thus belonged to the avant-garde of Swiss photography, so it is not surprising that he also played a role in the 'subjective photography' circle around Otto Steinert in Germany in the early 1950s....Kurt Blum worked for large industrial companies in northern Italy, leading in 1959 to the book Pictures of a factory (German title Lebendiger Stahl, 1960), in which he presented an almost infernal image of a steel works, sparks flying, by means of black-and-white photographs rich in contrasts"--Swiss Foundation for Photography 




For CEO’s Only is a selection of international company photobooks from the private collection of professional photographer Bart Sorgedrager, based in Amsterdam. Research assistant Clara Jankowski (MA Master Photographic Studies, Leiden University) has compiled a bibliography and captions for this particular selection of company photobooks and is presented in the exhibition as FOR CEO’S ONLY (alluding to the title of a company photobook by Richard Avedon for M&A Group in New York).

For CEO’s Only is a selection of international company photobooks from the private collection of professional photographer Bart Sorgedrager, based in Amsterdam. Research assistant Clara Jankowski (MA Master Photographic Studies, Leiden University) has compiled a bibliography and captions for this particular selection of company photobooks and is presented in the exhibition as FOR CEO’S ONLY (alluding to the title of a company photobook by Richard Avedon for M&A Group in New York).

For CEOs Only

AVEDON, Richard

CRAY at Chippewa Falls
Publisher: Cray Research, Inc., Minneapolis
Year of publication: 1987
Binding: hardcover (linen cloth; pasted label on front panel)
Size: 310 x 300 mm
Number of pages: 96
Number of illustrations: 79 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: photo reportage; documentary photography
Printer: Franklin Graphics, Inc., Nashville
Type of reproduction: offset lithography
Print run: 5000
Photography:Lee Friedlander
Text: Stuart Klipper (afterword)
Type: commemoration book (15 year anniversary)
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

‘In 1986 Cray Research, Inc. invited American master photo grapher Lee Fried lander (1934) to create a photo-illustrated book commemorating the company’s 15th anniversary. Friedlander took these photographs at Cray Research, Inc., Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, birthplace of the Cray-1 supercomputer—then the fastest computer in the world. The book includes a range of subjects shot in Friedlander’s characteristic style: sober images of shop fronts and empty streets, views of the landscape and underbrush surrounding Chippewa Falls and close-up shots of workers. The result was a landmark visual record documenting the assembly of this awe-inspiring supercomputer and the people who made it.’ From: https://museum.stanford.edu/news_room/friedlander.html

Pictures of a factory
Publisher: Fretz & Wasmuth Editions, Zürich
Year of publication: 1961 (2nd edition); 1959 (1st edition)
Binding: hardcover
Size: 285 x 230 mm
Number of pages: 102
Number of illustrations: 101 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: documentary photography
Printer: Fretz Brothers Ltd. Zürich, Switzerland
Type of reproduction: photogravure
Photography: Kurt Blum
Text: Michele Parrella
Type: promotional book
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

‘Kurt Blum [1922-2005] worked for large industrial companies in northern Italy, leading in 1959 to the book Pictures of a factory (reprinted in German language in 1960, title: Lebendiger Stahl), in which he presented an almost infernal image of steel works, sparks flying, by means of black-and-white photographs rich in contrasts. Above and beyond the documentary aspect, he soughtsubjective expressiveness, the atmospherically dense moment, conscious composedphotographic print. Blum belonged to the avant-garde of Swiss photography, so it is notsurprising that he also played a role in the “subjective photography” circle around Otto Steinert in Germany in the early 1950s.’ From: Swiss Foundation for Photography

Henkel
Publisher: Henkel & Cie GmbH, Düsseldorf
Year of publication: 1951
Binding: hardcover (linen cloth)
Size: 285 x 237 mm
Number of pages: 72
Number of illustrations: 34 color photographs
Type of illustrations: photo reportage; archival photography
Printer: A. Bagel, Düsseldorf
Type of reproduction: offset
Photography: Henkel Archive
Text: H.C. Hugo Henkel (prologue)
Type: commemoration book (75 year anniversary)
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

This commemoration photobook celebrates the success story of a family business in chemical products that involved three generations across 75 years. The introduction tells the reader the story from Dr. Hugo Henkel’s (1881-1952) point of view. He embodies the third generation in the family business and describes how the factory began as a playground for him and later became his laboratory. His grandfather Fritz Henkel founded the company in 1876 in Aachen. Hugo Henkel became the first chemical engineer within the business. After 70 years of labor Henkel is looking back on the progression and innovation of their company. A new generation is about to take over. The layout is straightforward with on every left page a few lines of text and on the right page a bleeding image, sometimes with white bars on the bottom or on the upper side of the page. Because most of the photographs are highly retouched, everything depicted looks spotless and bright, even dark interiors like the shop floor.

Câbleries et tréfileries de Cossonay [Cables and wires of Cossonay]
Publisher: Câbleries et Tréfileries De Cossonay, Cossonay
Year of publication: [1972]
Binding: hardcover
Size: 280 x 240 mm
Number of pages: 72
Number of illustrations: 53 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: abstract and documentary photography
Printer: Jean Genoud, Lausanne
Type of reproduction: photolithography
Photography: Marcel Imsand
Type: commemoration book (50 year anniversary)
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

Câbleries et tréfileries de Cossonay is the result of a cooperation between photographer Marcel Imsand (1929) and the Swiss cable and wire company. This company photobook was produced in the French-speaking section of Switzerland; the publication of company books in that area has developed slower than in the German region. Marcel Imsand received much artistic freedom from the company, reflected in some of the chapter’s titles in the book: ‘Human’, ‘Machine’ and ‘Material’. Imsand photographed wires and cables to place emphasis on repetition, lines and form and thereby created visually rhythmic sequences. The selection of large images and use of full bleed, across the bind seam and in different sizes, create a dynamic design to complement the objects depicted. Imsand’s signature is explicit: black & white, coarse grain, close ups and expressive abstract photographs.

PROGRES [PROGRESS]
Publisher: Société anonyme Manufacture Belge de Lampes et de Matériel Électronique, Brussels
Year of publication: 1966
Binding: hardcover (linen cloth with pattern in relief)
Size: 325 x 237 mm
Number of pages: 226
Number of illustrations: 61 black & white photographs; 5 color
Type of illustrations: photo collages; abstract and portrait photography
Printer: l’Imprimerie Wellens-Pay, Brussels
Type of reproduction: photogravure
Print run: 5000
Photography: Jacques Richez
Design: Jacques Richez
Text: Lucien Massart (introduction); André Maurois; Harry Melville; e.g.
Type: commemoration book
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

This book contains an historical resume, suggesting that illustrious men have been determining progress for all of mankind. The book attributes modern society to the invention of electricity. Electronic devices play a major role in everyday life. Jacques Richez (1918) was a gifted designer, draughtsman and experimental photographer. With his skills he added new dimensions to drawing and photography. PROGRES is exceptional in terms of size, color, typography and layout, tactility and shape. The book is richly illustrated with portraits, handwritten notes, line drawings and photo collages on sturdy metallic paper. Richez created subdivisions within the book by using different types of paper: matted or glossy, thick or thin. The result is a luxurious edition with a futuristic touch. The book includes texts from memorable philosophers and scientists. PROGRES was made in commemoration of Marcel Hublou and commisioned by Société anonyme Manufacture Belge de Lampes et de Matériel Électronique.

75 Jahre Brown Boveri 1891-1966
Publisher: Brown Boveri & Cie., Baden
Year of publication: 1966
Binding: hardcover (faux leather; black spine on cream board)
Size: 243 x 240 mm
Number of pages: 290
Number of illustrations: 77 black & white photographs; 147 color
Type of illustrations: archival, historical, product landscape and documentary photography
Printer: Conzett & Huber, Zürich
Type of reproduction: offset
Photography: Otto Daettwyler; Werkarchiv
Design: Pit Günter
Text: Peter Rinderknecht; Otto Mittler
Type: commemoration book (75 year anniversary)
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Swiss electrical engineering company, Brown Boveri & Cie published this comme moration book. The publication contains an historical overview from 1891 until 1966. The content focuses on expansion, development and corporate accomplishments. Both French-language and English-language editions were published. The book is divided into three sections: historical overview, company formation, and the human dimension of the industry. The book contains a wide variety of types of illustrations: from factual graphs to archival images. The cover contains a minimal line illustration. Most of the pictures taken in the factory halls were made with flashlight exposure, resulting in images appear like staged photography, comparable to the suspense tangible in the photographs by the Canadian artist Jeff Wall (1946). Text and image are evenly balanced in a mosaic layout. Brown Boveri & Cie produced a wide range of industrial products: electrical motors, generators, steam and gas turbines, and transformers.

150 Jahre Habig
150 years Habig
150 ans Habig
Publisher: Busche, Dortmund
Year of publication: 1959
Binding: hardcover (satin cloth; spiral; first sheet transparent plastic; one foldout)
Size: 240 x 170 mm
Number of pages: 84
Number of illustrations: 35 black & white photographs; 22 color
Type of illustrations: company profile; aerial photographs; photo collage; documentary and
commercial photography
Type of reproduction: offset
Photography: Eick Emsdetten; H. Harz; Aero-lux
Design: E. Zander
Text: Heinrich Haber Jr.
Type: commemoration book (150 year anniversary)
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

This little commemoration book was published on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the German fabric company Habig. The satin cover is made with a fabric design from the Habig collection: red, yellow and white stripes on a black background. The pages are interspersed by thick matted paper every time in a different pastel color. The bright retouched color photographs reflect the fabrics made in the factory. The book contains many nearly page-filling illustrations. The accompanying texts are often witty and ironic in nature, such as: ‘The pensioner. Looking into the evening does not symbolize the end.’

Kupferhammer Grünthal Vierhundert Jahre deutscher Arbeitskultur [Kupferhammer Grünthal 400 Years
of German Work Culture]
Publisher: C G Röder, Leipzig
Year of publication: 1937
Binding: hardcover (linen cloth; engraved emblem on cover)
Size: 305 x 230 mm
Number of pages: 140
Number of illustrations: 50 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: landscape, portrait and documentary photography
Photography: Albert Renger-Patzsch
Design: C G Röder
Text: Ernst von Laer
Type: commemoration book (400 year anniversary)
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

This company book was made for the 400th anniversary of the sheet copper working firm of F A Lange in 1937, and according to Gerry Badger it contains some of Albert Renger-Patzsch’s (1897-1966) finest work. ‘Kupferhammer Grünthal is a sumptuously produced book, demonstrating the full range of Renger-Patzsch’s talents, and revealing an eye that was none too adventurous, but always interesting.’ (Parr; Badger, 2006: 186) The book depicts a workers community as well as landscapes and portraits. The combination of types of photography that Renger-Patzsch applied create an in depth visual documentary study. The style the photographer embraced has been considered a forerunner of the studies Paul Strand made of various European communities in the 1950s and 1960s. See also: Badger, Gerry & Martin Parr (ed.), The Photobook: A History volume 2, Phaidon Press, London: 2006

Henschel Lokomotiven
Publisher: Henschel & Sohn A.G., Kassel
Year of publication: 1931
Binding: hardcover (linen cloth with title and logo in relief; three foldouts)
Size: 300 x 215 mm
Number of pages: 160
Number of illustrations: numerous black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: product and landscape photography
Printer: Röderdruck, Leipzig
Type: promotional catalogue
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

Henschel Lokomotiven contains different models of locomotives and engines produced by the firm with the same name. The book provides a grand tour of the world of locomotives built by the company intended for export. The book has the appearance of a collector’s guide. Henschel’s products are sold within Germany as well as internationally; the models of locomotives are ranked by country. Every page contains multiple images: one background image and smaller-framed photographs in front. The layout has a wide variety of style interventions: double spreads, bleeding images, images with duotone color layers, and a bold upper cast typeface. On three foldouts cross sections of locomotives are displayed.

Wetzlar und die Stahlwerke Röchling-Buderus A.G. [Wetzlar and the Steel Mills Röchling-Bunderus A.G.]
Publisher: Röchlingstahl, Wetzlar
Year of publication: 1965
Binding: hardcover (plastic cover; inside work glued to the cover)
Size: 150 x 220 mm
Number of pages: 40
Number of illustrations: 35 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: company profile; (urban) landscape and documentary photography
Printer: W. Bechstein, Wetzlar
Type of reproduction: offset
Type: promotional book
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

This small publi cation, Wetzlar und die Stahl werke Röchling- Buderus A.G., places the steel mills central in the history of Wetzlar by introducing the small town and zooming in on the factory and the shop floor. The hard plastic oblong cover is illustrated with a map of Wetzlar that gives the impression of the steel mills as a tourist attraction. The first spread shows a collage of laborers leaving the factory after work; the background image is a birds-eye view on the factory printed on an olive green stripe pattern. The booklet contains illustrations in a variety of sizes most of which are overlaid with red and yellow color fields. The book concludes with a direct message to the reader: The quality of the product is its selling point; this is what the company explicitly wants to communicate.

Du, Mensch…[You, Creature…]
Publisher: Huber & Co. AG., Frauenfeld
Year of publication: 1962
Binding: paperback
Size: 218 x 225 mm
Number of pages: 47
Number of illustrations: 49 black & white photographs; 1 color
Type of illustrations: product, commercial and documentary photography
Type of reproduction: offset
Photography: Jürg Klages; Beringer & Pampaluchi; Conzett & Huber; e.g.
Design: Jürg Klages, Zürich
Text: Willi Fava, Frauenfeld
Type: promotional book
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

Du, Mensch… is a nearly square and thin publi cation about the origins and the usage of different types of leather. Consis tently, images of animals and nature are juxtaposed to those of human beings and leather products. The book consists of anthropological images and product photography, mostly cut out in black & white. Photographer and designer Jürg Klages (1924) used horizontal primary colored bars intersecting with the images. Some of his photographs suggest a tactile quality referring to leather. In a poetic and moralizing manner the reader is narrated from Eskimos to Africans and from the prairie to the desert. The story concludes with the prophetic note that leather is an indispensable product worldwide and essential to human beings now and in the future.

Peugeot Fréres, berceau des entreprises Peugeot [Peugeot Brothers, a cradle of enterprises by Peugeot]
Publisher: Peugeot et Cie, Valentigney
Year of publication: 1953
Binding: soft cover (with folded cardboard jacket)
Size: 280 x 215 mm
Number of pages: 71; 1 fold out
Number of illustrations: 98 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: company profile; documentary photography
Photography: Robert Doisneau
Design: Jean Vallée
Text: Pierre Mac Orlan (preface)
Type: yearbook
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

With the publication of this yearbook the longstanding French car company Peugeot proclaims international success. However the emphasis of the publication is not about car models. The geographical and historical roots of Peugeot Fréres are the starting point, from there the reader is introduced to the industrial manufacturing of a diversity of products, e.g., steel strips for dressmaking, saws and springs for watch making. The gold pasted label on the cover and the two golden emblems inside gives the book allure. The designer Jean Vallée integrates texts and photographs by way of blue triangle text balloons. The photographs, made by French renowned professional photographer Robert Doisneau (1912-1994), vary in size and position on the page; some overlap in a mosaic-like layout.

Unanimite [Unanimity]
Publisher: Société Anonyme André Citroën, Paris
Year of publication: [1968]
Binding: soft cover (saddle stitched)
Size: 230 x 328 mm
Number of pages: 20
Number of illustrations: 27 color photographs
Type of illustrations: street photography
Printer: Delpire Publicité, Paris
Type of reproduction: offset
Photography: William Klein
Type: promotional catalogue
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

Citroën - producer of among the most avant-garde car designs ever marketed on a main stream basis - collabo rated regularly with author photographers, which over the years included Henri Cartier-Bresson, Jean-Paul Goude, and Marc Riboud. Following his key publication New York 1954-1955 (1956) William Klein (1928) photographed Unanimite with a snapshot approach. For this catalogue, Klein zoomed in on the futuristic, aerodynamic design elements that made the DS [DS stands for Déesse and means Goddess in French] one of the most unique cars ever made. Klein photographed the gracious French DS model in New York City and by doing so he suggests similar characteristics between the car and the metropolis. Klein’s photographs depict movement as a metaphor of speed. Velocity is reflected in the layout: with diagonally text captions, big tilted images and repeated circles with flag patterns of the export countries. See also: http://bintphotobooks.blogspot.nl/2008/04/william-klein-french-goddess-citron-ds.html

Nestlé, usine de Saint-Menet, Marseille [Nestlé, factory in Saint-Menet, Marseille]
Publisher: Les Presses de Draeger Frères, Montrouge
Year of publication: 1959
Binding: paperback (folded cardboard with pattern in relief)
Size: 285 x 240 mm
Number of pages: 50
Number of illustrations: 22 black & white photographs; 27 color
Type of illustrations: company profile; documentary, landscape and product photography
Type of reproduction: letter press printing
Photography: Draeger; Nestlé Collection; Roger Viollet
Design: Ferry and Barbot
Type: promotional book
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

The Swiss nutrition multinational Nestlé published a promotional book on their chocolate and Nescafé factory in Saint-Menet, near Marseille. The publication introduces the picturesque town Saint-Menet, followed by a view on the industrial complexes and concludes with a report on the fabrication of chocolate and Nescafé. The illustrations are varied: black & white exterior and interior photographs, photographs of coffee roasters, machines for rotating and equalizing the chocolate paste, and large piles of Nescafé packages. Some of the photographs are coated with a single primary color. With one exception, all color photographs are manually pasted to the inside work. In addition to the photographs, the book contains two detailed illustrations of the cacao plant and the coffee plant: the natural resource of chocolate and Nescafé.

Renault Yvon and Volkswagenwerk Wolfsburg
Binding: folded cassette (with front window; photographs printed as postcards inside)
Size: 70 x 94 / 70 x 94 mm
Number of pages: 20 / 16
Number of illustrations: 20 / 16
Type of illustrations: company profile; documentary photography
Type of reproduction: gelatin silver print on picture postcards
Type: promotional book
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

Renault Yvon and Volkswagenwerk Wolfsburg are two of a kind: a pack of, respectively, twenty and sixteen small souvenir postcards that nowadays can be found in large amounts at antiquarian markets. Because these peculiar objects are not photobooks they are an exception to the rule in this exhibition. These miniatures come across as merchandise meant for the tourist branch. The photographic series on the two biggest European car companies are practically the same. The postcards give insight into the operational car industry processes from raw materials to end product: an aerial overview, the machines to paint and presses to weld the body parts, labour on the shop floor, the final product Renault CV4 and VW Bug. A descriptive caption on the backside of each card explains what is depicted on front.

Le Confort au Palais et dans les Appartemens [Comfort in Palais and Appartments]
Publisher: La Société Générale de Fonderie, Paris
Year of publication: 1931
Binding: paperback (hand silk paper; cover with engraved ornaments)
Size: 240 x 320 mm
Number of pages: 92
Number of illustrations: 52 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: photomontage; documentary photography
Printer: SOC, Paris
Type of reproduction: photogravure
Print run: 1000
Photography:[Germaine Krull]
Text: Gosselin Lenotre; Paul Reboux; Marcel Provost; e.g.
Type: promotional book
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

Le Confort au Palais et dans les Appar temens is a luxurious, large-size publi cation by La Société Générale de Fonderie a company in household equipment like bold heating ovens. The first half of the book contains four fiction stories written by Gosselin Lenotre, Paul Reboux, Marcel Provost, and Pierre Mac Orlan. The first page of each short story is juxtaposed with a color drawing pasted on the left page. The stories are printed on hand silk paper. The second half of the book encloses a series of densely printed full bleed photographs with intersecting bracts in between some of the pages. The series of photographs consist of photomontages and close-ups; all photographs are shot in a dramatic modernist style. The photographs are generally ascribed to the German photographer Germaine Krull (1897-1985). Krull lived in Paris between 1926 and 1928, and is known for her seminal industrial photobook Métal (1928).

GEO
Publisher: Géo Foucault & Schweitzer, Paris
Year of publication: [1930s]
Binding: paperback (bound by a cord)
Size: 175 x 112 mm
Number of pages: 210
Number of illustrations: 42 black & white photographs; 62 color
Type of illustrations: product and architecture photography
Type of reproduction: offset
Type: promotional catalogue
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

GEO appears like a no-nonsense booklet about the different types of meat the factory produces. The book consists of two parts; clearly divided by different types of paper. The first part contains detached black & white interior and exterior photographs of the factory. The second part continues with product photography and includes cut-outs in vivid colors. The chunks of meat are displayed within an ornamental frame. Not only ham and sausages are presented, but also cans with paté and pots with pickles are displayed. The book is loosely bound with a cord and two perforations; only the right pages are printed. Either a one centimetre white bar or an ornamental frame consistently formats each of the photographs on these pages throughout the booklet.

Newsprint
Publisher: International Paper Sales Company Inc., Montreal, Canada
Year of publication: 1939
Binding: hardcover
Size: 345 x 268 mm
Number of pages: 74
Number of illustrations: 84 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: documentary photography; photo collage
Type of reproduction: photogravure
Photography:Margaret Bourke-White; H.F. Kells; Edward J. Herbert; e.g.
Type: promotional book [40 year anniversary]
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

Newsprint is a photo book pur sang, compiled of docu mentary photo graphy. This publi cation contains hardly any text. The subtitle explains precisely what the book is about: ‘A book of pictures illustrating the operations in the manufacture of paper on which to print the world’s news’. A series of photographs by famous American woman photographer Margaret Bourke-White (1904-1971) shows the reader the production process from lumbering to sawmill, from pulp to the final product: newsprint. Besides the production process Bourke-White also focuses on the employees of International Paper Sales Company. The book consists almost entirely of large-size printed photographs: some are full spread, others contain white bars on top or bottom and in some cases overlapping and bleeding images. Bourke-White used high contrast black & white photography and emphasized in her pictures both the force of the elements of nature with the force of man-made machines.

Les Nouvelles Messageries de la Presse Parisienne [The New Message from Presse Parisienne]
Publisher: N.M.P.P., Paris
Year of publication: 1960
Binding: hardcover (linen cloth)
Size: 320 x 245 mm
Number of pages: 62
Number of illustrations: 51 black & white photographs; 5 color
Type of illustrations: company profile; documentary photography
Printer: Draeger Frères, Montrouge
Type of reproduction: offset
Photography: Édouard Boubat
Design: Pierre Faucheux
Text: Antoine Blondin
Type: promotional book
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

On first impression, the publication of Presse Parisienne looks, in terms of size, cover and layout, like a children’s book: colorful and set in a large typeface. However, this is illusionary. The main part of the book is about the daily distribution of a newspaper. With a daily press run of over three million copies, it needed a large distribution network. The visual narrative in Les Nouvelles Messageries de la Presse Parisienne is chronological and shows the production of Presse Parisienne as if it were a life cycle with time as its only enemy. The book design echoes the dynamic of a venturous company, resulting in a variety of image sizes, paper and little text. Sheets of mechanical wood paper emphasize the physical aspect of the production of a newspaper. In assigning the Paris based photographer Édouard Boubat (1923-1999), Presse Parisienne choose to depict the newspaper in a humanist manner. Boubat is fitting in the tradition of postwar humanist photography. Boubat’s photos show the daily newspaper as a communication tool and how Presse Parisienne is part of daily life.

So Entsteht ein Auto [The Making of a Car]
Publisher: Bücherei der Adlerwerke, Frankfurt
Year of publication: 1930
Binding: paperback (stitched; cover with relief)
Size: 355 x 265 mm
Number of pages: 109
Number of illustrations: 49 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: photomontage; product photography
Printer: Brönner’s Druckerei, Frankfurt
Type of reproduction: photogravure
Photography: Paul Wolff
Design: Hans Breidenstein
Text: Paul G. Ehrhardt
Type: commemoration book (50 year anniversary)
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

On occasion of the 50th anniversary of automobile manufacturer Adlerwerke the company published So Entsteht ein Auto. This title is likely the first industrial company book made by photographer Paul Wolff's (1887-1951), who studied medicine and was a pioneer in 35 mm color photography and the use of the Leica camera. This paperback edition showcased Adlerwerke’s car production in a striking Art Deco design. Most of the illustrations are photomontages. The text is printed in brown on beige paper, which contrasts effectively with the cold deep black of the images. The book is divided in six chapters and depicts historical, contemporary and future production techniques.

My trip to “Caterpillar”
Publisher: Tractor Co. Peoria, Illinois
Year of publication: [1940s]
Binding: hardcover (bound by a cord and two perforations; faux leather cover)
Size: 240 x 330 mm
Number of pages: 18
Number of illustrations: 2 black & white photographs; 18 color
Type of illustrations: company profile; group portrait (gelatin siver print)
Type: commemoration book
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

My trip to “Cater pillar” is a personal souvenir to B.F. Gephart whose name is in gold relief print on the cover. The cover is similar to the American high school yearbooks mentioned in The Photobook: A History volume two (2006) by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger. The book design appears as an old-fashioned family album: in size; full-padded whitewashed plastic cover with shiny yellow cord; glassine interleaving paper and text balloons accompanying each image. Groups who visited the world’s largest manufacturer of diesel engines, tractors and road machinery began their tour with a group portrait and each visitor was able to take this personal gift home at the end of the day. The final pages are left blank for personal notes, like in a diary. The photographs are heavily retouched with bright colors and placed in pairs in a white frame on light blue paper.

L’uomo in fabbrica [Man in factory]
Publisher: Gruppo Fiat, Turin
Year of publication: 1971
Binding: hardcover (with paper dust jacket)
Size: 280 x 158 mm
Number of pages: 96
Number of illustrations: 92 black & white photographs; 12 color
Type of illustrations: documentary
Type of reproduction: offset
Photography: Aldo Moisio; Filiberto Rota; Enzo Isaia; e.g.
Text: Umberto Agnelli
Type: promotional book
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

In the publication L’uomo in fabbrica the automobile manufacturer Fiat expresses its affinity with its employees working on the shop floor, its focus on the importance of human workforce in factory work. A technical drawing of the Fiat 128 model is printed on the dust jacket. After a short introduction the book contains only photographs. A compilation of thumbnails, bleeding images and large images bordered with white bars show the reader a day at work in the factory. The variety in image size and the mixture of black & white and color photographs generate a dynamic flow in the visual narrative. The story begins with the employees going to work and it ends when they leave the Fiat complex; in addition, the storyline shows the fabrication of the Fiat 128. Captain of industry of the Fiat Group, Umberto Agnelli, is portrayed on the shop floor and wrote an introductory text.

Revolution im Unsichtbaren [Invisible Revolution]
Publisher: Econ-Verlag GMBH, Düsseldorf
Year of publication: 1963
Binding: hardcover (linen cloth with engraved title)
Size: 305 x 260 mm
Number of pages: 132
Number of illustrations: 26 black & white photographs; 54 color
Type of illustrations: company profile; abstract and documentary photography
Printer: H. Osterwald, Hannover
Type of reproduction: offset
Photography: Rudi Angenendt; Horst H. Baumann; Heinz Bitter; e.g.
Design: Wolf D. Zimmermann
Text: Friedrich Sieburg
Type: commemoration book (100 year anniversary)
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

The company Bayer AG was established in 1863 and originally manufactured dyestuffs, a substance for staining and coloring fabrics. In 1925 it evolved into the consolidation of Germany’s chemical industries known as IG Farben. Bayer AG first developed pharmaceuticals, dyes, acetates, fibres, insecticides, and other chemicals and, most of all, is it renowned for being the originator and first marketer of aspirin (1899). Revolution im Unsichtbaren was published on the occasion of Bayer AG’s 100th anniversary and contains full bleeding bright silver-coated images, somewhat psychedelic in nature, that display the chemical development of dyestuffs. With close-ups, little depth of field and motion blur, the visual narrative is abstract and dynamic.

“Night Trick” on the Norfolk and Western Railway
Publisher: Norfolk and Western Railway, Roanoke, Virginia
Year of publication: 1957
Binding: paperback
Size: 215 x 278 mm
Number of pages: 16
Number of illustrations: 16 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: landscape and documentary photography
Type of reproduction: offset
Photography: Ogle Winston Link
Text: Norfolk and Western Railway
Type: promotional book
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

‘This book, made for the Norfolk and Western Railway in Virginia, might not be large, but many of O. Winston Link’s (1914-2001) classic images are in there, and given fine reproduction. Link, who is formulating a vision of the United States as conservative and as precisely calculated as that of Norman Rockwell, generally creates a foreground tableau and has a train, steam blowing behind, rushing by in the background. [...] Link’s vision is, of course, a fabrication, a very persuasive one based on the idea of community. He shows the United States going about its business and leisure, keeping the commercial, social and cultural life of the country flowing as it should.’ From: Badger, Gerry & Martin Parr (ed.), The Photobook: A History volume 2, Phaidon Press, London: 2006, pp.188-189

IGNIS 25
Publisher: Rizzoli Editore, Milan
Year of publication: 1969
Binding: hardcover (paper dust jacket; logo engraved on cover)
Size: 290 x 210 mm
Number of pages: 172
Number of illustrations: 136 black & white photographs; 61 color
Type of illustrations: landscape, architectural, reportage and product photography
Type of reproduction: offset
Photography: Publifoto; Renato Padovan; Faoro and Tediosi archive
Design: Enzo Avesani
Text: Giuseppe Tanzi (ed.)
Type: commemoration book (25 year anniversary)
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

The Italian company in household equip ment, Ignis, published a photo book on the occasion of its 25th anni versary. The book has a two-part division: the first part is a historical overview in text and graphs and the second part is a visual reportage on the company. The latter is again divided in three sections: photographs of the industry, of the commercial enterprise, and a section on social life. All the color images are full-bleed spreads. The photographs that are taken inside the factory are shot with flashlight. The effect is images appearing to be staged. Because all the employers wear blue overalls and work along the assembly line the repetitive mise-en-scene in the photographs has a theatrical quality.

Facom
Publisher: Draeger Frères, Montrouge
Year of publication: 1960
Binding: paperback (spiral binding; sections divided by numbered cardboard tabs)
Size: 268 x 235 mm
Number of pages: 150
Number of illustrations: numerous black & white photographs; 9 color
Type of illustrations: company profile; product and documentary photography
Type of reproduction: offset
Photography: Mazo, St-Martin; Photocrom, Buenos-Aires
Design: Service Artistique Draeger Frères, Montrouge
Text: Facom
Type: promotional catalogue
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

Facom is a company in mechanical gear; the catalogue depicts many different types of wrenches, sockets, screwdrivers, and other hand tools. Most of the product photography is printed on black & white coated with a red tone, some of the interior photography is in the same style. For example, the store is depicted in black & white with only a cupboard in red. Another notable aspect of the design is the images along the cardboard tabs are printed as spreads, in black & white on the left page and in color on the right page.

Im Kraftfeld von Rüsselsheim [In the Force Field of Rüsselsheim]
Publisher: Knorr und Hirth, München
Year of publication: 1940
Binding: hardcover (printed linen cloth and faux leather spine; with dust cover)
Size: 220 x 210 mm
Number of pages: 219
Number of illustrations: 80 color photographs
Type of illustrations: documentary photography
Printer: Hauserpresse Hans Schaefer, Frankfurt
Type of reproduction: offset
Photography: Paul Wolff
Design and Idea: Carl T. Wiskott
Text: Heinrich Hauser
Type: promotional book
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

Im Kraftfeld von Rüssels heim was published during World War II. It took two years to finalize its produc tion, for which the publisher expressed pride on the jacket text. One of the reasons for this euphoria is that the text is written according to Nazi ideology. Another reason was the fact that Im Kraftfeld von Rüsselsheim is the first book with color reproductions of 35 mm negative film. Dr. Paul Wolff (1887-1951) used his preferred Leica camera in twelve different factories to record the industrialization of Rüsselsheim, among them: a rayon factory, a screw factory, and steel mills. Most of the factories manufactured products for the biggest car company of its time in Europe: Opel. The photo series depict mainly factory workers on the shop floor working with metal, from welding to polishing.

Omaggio Al Cappello [A Tribute to the Hat]
Publisher: Arti Grafiche Amilcare Pizzi, Milan
Year of publication: 1957
Binding: hardcover (linen cloth with embossed title; illustrated dust jacket)
Size: 292 x 255 mm
Number of pages: 150
Number of illustrations: 79 black & white photographs; 1 color
Type of illustrations: company profile; historical and portrait photography
Printer: Arti Grafische Amilcare Pizzi, Milan
Type of reproduction: offset
Text: Mario Carrieri; Giuseppe Trevisani; Massimo Vignelli (eds.)
Type: commemoration book (100 year anniversary)
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

The 100th year anniversary of the Borsalino company resulted in a bulky tribute to headdress. The publication is composed of pictures, photography and reproductions of paintings which makes it a versatile design. The dust jacket is printed on two sides: on the outside the assemblage of a hat is depicted, and hidden on the inside flaps is a photograph of the apartments of employees. The inside work is compiled of a series of reproductions of famous paintings that show people with hats. These reproductions are pasted on black pages. The second section in the book contains various humorous and fashion illustrations, with the hat as central topic. The third section displays full-page portraits of employers with a short but quite a personal history introducing each person. Omaggio Al Cappello conveys to the reader the company’s fascination for and affection with the (making of the) Italy’s famous headdress.

Die Maggi Werke [The Maggi Works]
Publisher: Maggi Gesellschaft MBH, Berlin
Year of publication: [1925]
Binding: paperback (folded binding with cord)
Size: 205 x 295 mm
Number of pages: 40
Number of illustrations: 41 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: company profile; documentary photography
Type of reproduction: offset
Design: H. Schirmer, Berlin
Type: promotional book
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

Die Maggi Werke is a publi cation on Germany’s largest food industry business: Maggi. The straight forward Art Deco book design is similar to the design of Dutch artist magazine Wendingen [1918-1932] from the same style period. The page layout and typography in this oblong publication is more prominent than the greyish photographs about the people working in the factory and the agriculture. Depicted on the photographs are the men returning from harvest, long lines of women wearing aprons and headscarves preparing cauliflower and kettles with bouillon. Except for two pages, every page contains one medium size photograph that is always off-centre. With a large typeface and decorating strips in silver along the outer edge of the pages, black strips around the photographs and blue strips along the page seam create a firm and dated Art Deco layout.

Les Cathedrales du Vin [The Cathedrals of Wine]
Publisher: Sainrapt et Brice, Paris
Year of publication: 1937
Binding: paperback
Size: 310 x 237 mm
Number of pages: 20
Number of illustrations: 11 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: documentary photography
Printer: Jacques Bazaine, Paris
Type of reproduction: photogravure
Print run: 3100 (numbered)
Photography: André Kertesz
Text: Pierre Hamp
Type: promotional book
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

Les Cathedrales du Vin is a publication on the winery Sainrapt et Brice in Paris. The large format paperback contains eleven photographs made by the Hungarian master photographer André Kertesz (1894-1985). A semi-transparent glassine interleaving paper with explanatory captions covers each photograph. The black & white illustrations have a dense quality with high contrast due to the photogravure reproduction. Kertesz captured the winery with serenity as if it were a cathedral. The dimly lit chambers are empty with deep down anonymous individuals at work. From different points of view, some frontal and some from a high or low perspective, Kertesz emphasizes the height of the winery’s interior.

Práce Je Živá [Work is Living]
Publisher: Ceská Grafická, Prague
Year of publication: 1945
Binding: hardcover (half brown cloth; photographic dust jacket).
Size: 340 x 255 mm
Number of pages: 180
Number of illustrations: 173 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: documentary photography
Type of reproduction: photogravure
Photography: Vladimir Hipman
Type: promotional book
Collection: Bart Sorgedrager, Amsterdam

Práce Je Živá is a tribute to the workforce of Czecho slovakia. This costly and volu minous
publi cation pays tribute to the industrial era and its heroic workers. The Czech photographer Vladimir Hipman was a prominent figure in the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) movement in Eastern Europe. In style and propagation of work ethos Práce Je Živá is comparable to Albert Renger-Patzsch’s Eisen und Stahl (1931) and Lewis W. Hine’s Men at work (1932). The rich photogravures display a dramatic view on industrial work published in this scarce post-war classic.

Forthcoming Spring 2014 Book about Chinese Photobooks Martin Parr WassinkLundgren Photography

La Chine à terre et en ballon; reproduction de 272 photographies, exécutées par des officiers du génie du corps expéditionnaire et groupées sur 42 [i.e. 41] planches et phototypie avec légendes explicatives (1902)

China As She Is:
A Comprehensive Album 
This auction features China As She Is: A Comprehensive Album , published in 1934 in Shanghai, China. The book provides an extensive look at prewar China. There are sections on 28 provinces of China (some provinces are grouped together; there are 23 separate chapters for the 28 provinces). Each chapter begins with one page of text giving general information about the province and its major cities followed by black & white photos of industry, agriculture, buildings, historic and religious landmarks, lakes and other natural features. The text is in English and Chinese.

Pictorial Review of the Sino-Japanese Conflict 1932

"Chairman Mao is the red sun of our hearts" - scarce illustrated album from the early period of Cultural Revolution published in July 1967 by The "People's Fine Arts Publishing House" for The "Chinese Revolution Photographic Society". The album contains 68 plates with black & white historical pictures & many affixed color photographs signed by Zhong Guo, Ge Ming, She Ying, Xie Hui, Bian Ji.

China.

Van Empels werk is mooi. Te mooi

'Studio Arbeiderspers'

Fotoboek - Koninklijke papierfabrieken Van Gelder Zonen n.v., ca, 1965

On Show (Think 4)
Publisher: Howard Paper Smith, Northhampton (UK)
Year of publication: 2008
Binding: hard bound cover
Size: 245 x 207 mm
Number of pages: 128
Number of illustrations: 25 black & white photography; 50 color
Type of illustrations: amateur photography
Provenance: private collection Erik Kessels, Amsterdam
Type of reproduction: offset (225 line screen)
Print run: 1200
Printer: St Ives Westerham Press
Design: Browns
Editor documentation: Erik Kessels, Amsterdam
Text: Adrian Shaughnessy (preface/interview); Davy Jones (interview)
Type: sample book
Collection: Mirelle Thijsen/IPhoR, Amsterdam

On show (2008) is composed by advertising consultant, publisher and collector of found photography Erik Kessels (1966). He is creative director of advertising agency KesselsKramer in Amsterdam/London which has made name with unorthodox campaigns in which authenticity and directness are in high esteem, often using found photographs of anonymous photographers, mostly amateur photography. On Show has the looks of a photo album, complete with blank picture frames,stock pages and show bags. The publication, compiled of previously unpublished amateur pictures from the private collection of Kessels, was created in the context of the Howard Smith Paper lectures series, for which, among others, Paul Graham (1956) and Lawrence Weiner (1942) have been invited.

TIMELESS, Job Parilux
Publisher: Papierfabrik Scheuffelen GmbH, Lenningen/Jb Scheuffelen S.A. Paris/G.P., Andelst
Year of publication: 2001
Binding: hard bound cover (paperbound, with three ribbons (purple, yellow, red), book title in
varnish)
Size: 320 x235 mm
Number of pages: 76
Number of illustrations: 32 black & white photography; 32 color
Type of illustrations: studio portraits; amateur photography; family photography
Type of reproduction: duotone and four color offset
Printer: Knijnenberg; Calf & Meischke, Amsterdam
Photographer: Anton Beeke; portraits of children from family albums of the former fashion models
Design: Studio Anton Beeke (Paulina Matusiak)
Editor: Anton Beeke (concept and production); Rémy Gass
Text: Mariette Haveman; France Billand (editing)
Type: sample book
Collection: Jan Wingender Collection, Leusden/Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

TIMELESS (2001) is printed on the slick Job Parilux, the trademark of Scheuffelen paper factory. This paper type is ideal for showing the ultimate possibilities of duotone-technique in a unique shade of black and grey tones. Thus a publication arose, based on a concept by Anton Beeke (1940), as a sample of high-quality printing technique. For the publication a number of portraits of former Dutch models from the 1960s are selected, created by Beeke in London, Paris and Amsterdam. On a left page a small family album picture from the childhood of the model, is consistently printed in twocolor printing, to emphasize the difference in Zeitgeist and in the perception of time.

A meeting on holiday
Publisher: NEROC’VGM, Amsterdam
Year of publication: 2004
Binding: paperbound carton postcards perforated. In transparent plastic sleeve
Size: 208 x 148 mm
Number of pages: 56
Number of illustrations: 48 color
Type of illustration: found photography
Type of reproduction: offset
Print run: 1000
Printer: NEROC’VGM, Amsterdam
Photography: Joachim Schmid
Editor: Erik Kessels; Joachim Schmid
Design: Kesselskramer, Amsterdam
Text: KesselsKramer, Amsterdam
Type: promotional book
Collection: Mirelle Thijsen/IPhoR, Amsterdam

‘Inspired by the work NEROC’VGM does for the production of travel brochures […], Joachim [Schmid (1955)] held his meeting at various holiday resorts around the world. This is a virtual place called Postcard land, where the sun always shines, the holiday-makers always smile and the sea and pools are the brightest of blues. Joachim sifted through thousands of images and carefully arranged the ones in this meetings book, to create postcard poetry of tourist expectations’. From: Anonymous [KesselsKramer], Joachim Schmid. A meeting on holiday (meetings # 1), Amsterdam 2003.

De kracht van kleur
Publisher: ModoVanGelder, Amsterdam
Year of publication: 2002
Binding: hard cover
Size: 215 x 175 mm
Number of pages: 72
Number of illustrations: 35 color
Type of illustrations: travel photography; documentary photography
Type of reproduction: iris print
Print run: 1000
Printer: Ando BV, Den Haag; Kempers BV, Aalten; Slinger BV, Alkmaar, a.o.
Photography: Marnix Goossens; Vivianne Sassen; Martine Stig; Raimond Wouda; Henk Wildschut e.g.
Design: solar initiative, Amsterdam
Editor: Colin Huizing
Text: Jos Vlak, Voorschoten
Type: promotional book
Collection: Mirelle Thijsen/IPhoR, Amsterdam

Stemming from the idea of passion for paper and printing, it is interesting to show the ultimate capabilities of the printing industry in the field of reproduction onto glossy paper and other specific paper types. De kracht van kleur [The power of color] (2002) is a striking example of this strategy and is in line with a tradition of graphic production companies in the field of producing and initiating prestigious printing, company photobooks in particular.

Kunstofprikkels Proost Prikkels 328
Publisher: Proost & Brandt NV, Amsterdam/Putten
Year of publication: 1972
Number of pages: 64
Number of illustrations: 38 black & white photographs; 4 color
Type of illustrations: reportage; company profile
Size: 98 x 191mm
Binding: paperback, paperbound
Type of reproduction: offset
Photography: Aart Klein
Design: [Charles Jongejans]
Text: The Prikkel redaction [Wim Alings]
Type: goodwill
Collection: Jan Wingender Collection, Leusden/Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

Following In the footsteps of Proost Prikkels 322 (March 1971) appeared in april 1972, in landscape format this time, Kunstofprikkels Proost Prikkels 328. [Synthetic Incentives Proost Incentives 328] This booklet with a photo reportage by Aart Klein (1909-2001), is packaged in a mini grip bag of white polyethylene. The company photo booklet is interleaved with transparent Proflex polyethylene sheets. As the demand for and use of paper in the packaging industry is subject to change, the paper factory decided in the early 1970s to start in Putten with the production of polyethylene, a flexible and transparent material used for making bags, foil and a container with the perpetual closure: the mini grip. An important aspect in those years, in which the attention to environmental pollution rose, was that polyethylene is a biodegradable product.

Proost Prikkels 322
Publisher: Proost & Brandt NV, Amster dam/ Putten
Year of publication: 1971
Number of pages: 72
Number of illustrations: 51 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: photo reportage; company profile
Size: 98 x 191mm
Binding: paperback, paperbound
Type of reproduction: offset
Photography: Hans Samson
Design: [Charles Jongejans]
Text: The Prikkel redaction [Wim Alings]
Type: goodwill
Collection: Jan Wingender Collection, Leusden/Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

Proost Prikkels 322 [Proost Incentives], above all, is about the human factor and the added value of bookbinding. Photographs of Hans Samson (1939) illustrate the production line. Text columns describe the production process and can be considered as an ongoing story or could be read as captions for the photo reportage. The text is put in red Sans Serif on blue Prospecta paper, parallel to the pictures.

HOUSE Kwadraat-blad nr. 33
Year of publication: 1971
Publisher: Steendrukkerij de Jong & Co, Hilversum
Binding: paperback, glewed
Size: 250 x 250 mm
Number of pages: 52
Number of illustrations: 25 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: documentary photography (series on a collapsed barn)
Type of reproduction: offset
Printer: Steendrukkerij de Jong & Co, Hilversum
Text: Pieter Brattinga
Photography: Les Levine
Design: Pieter Brattinga
Type: goodwill
Collection: Mirelle Thijsen/IPhoR, Amsterdam

The most remarkable quadrat print is a quadrilingual sober edition based on an idea by the American conceptual artist/sculptor Les Levine (1935). Each photograph in HOUSE. quadrat print No. 33 (1971) is a work plan for a sculpture or monument. The reader is invited to accomplish one of the ‘monuments’ on a scale that is proportional to the space available to him/her. And when he/she has completed the monument, or has had enough, the person is requested to send photographs of it to the artist. Flanked by a raven black left page, which now flinches and then extends into a vertical strip on the right page, documentary photographs loom of a collapsed barn, in a rugged landscape along a country road, against the backdrop of a mountain slope. As in a flipbook the camera is increasingly zooming in on details of the ruin.

Alphabet, Kwadraat-blad nr. 28
Year of publication: 1970
Publisher: Steendrukkerij de Jong & Co, Hilversum
Binding: loose leafe in stiff wrappers with fold out sleeve, transparent foil
Size: 250 x 250 mm
Number of pages: 26 and 4 leaves
Number of illustrations: 80 square black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: nude photography
Type of reproduction: lithography
Printer: Steendrukkerij de Jong & Co, Hilversum
Photography: Geert Kooiman; Ed van der Elsken
Design: Anthon Beeke; Anna Beeke (production)
Text: Pieter Brattinga
Language: Dutch-English-French-German
Type: ‘quadrat print’/PR instrument
Collection: Jan Wingender, Leusden/Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

Each ‘quadrat print’ is part of a series of experimental prints in graphic design, art, literature, architecture and music. Alphabet, Quadrat print No. 28 (1970), by far the best known quadrat print, is a model of the women's emancipation and sexual freedom acquired in the 1960s. It consists of a wallet containing free-standing photographs from letters of the alphabet and loose punctuation marks printed on thirty single sheets. Starting point of the series of photographs was the capitals version of Baskerville. Arranged female bodies of women and children are forming typographically correct 26 letters of the alphabet, and four punctuations in Baskerville Old Face Font The series is directed by Anthon Beeke (1940) and photographed by Geert Kooiman. The reportage is made by Ed van der Elsken (1925-1990). In blocks of 16, his pictures are put together seamlessly on the folding pages on the inside of the cover.

De snelbinder Proostprikkels 286
Year of publication: 1965
Publisher: Proost & Brandt NV, Amsterdam
Size: 214 x 134mm
Binding: hard bound
Number of pages: 32 (photo quire)
Number of illustrations: 14 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: reportage; company profile
Photography: Ad Windig; Hans Samson (cover)
Design: Pieter Groot
Text: Bert Schierbeek
Type: sample book
Collection: Jan Wingender, Leusden/Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

De snelbinder Proostprikkels 286 [The bike carrier strap Proost Incentives 286] is for more than three quarters a paper sample book, with the size of a hefty paperback. Cover and flyleafs are made of white pressed bookbinders material. The sleeve is made of corrugated cardboard. The text is put out of the Grotesk. The book appears in April 1965 and contains a quire with photographs by Ad Windig (1912-1996) on glossy paper. The mechanical process of bookbinding is based on detailed pictures of the Sheridan – a modern fast-running binding machine built in the United States.

Drievel in het wapen
Publisher: NV Berghuizer Papierfabriek VH B. Cramer, Wapenveld
Year of publication: 1961
Binding: hard bound cover
Size: 280 x 210 mm
Number of pages: 64
Number of photographs: 53 black & white photographs; 4 color
Type of illustrations: company profile (from raw material tot finished product)
Type of reproduction: letter press printing and offset
Printer: Drukkerij Meijer NV, Wormerveer
Text: Bert Schierbeek
Photography: Ad Windig
Design: Alexander Verberne
Text: Bert Schierbeek
Type: commemoration book
Collection: Jan Wingender, Leusden/Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

Writer-poet Bert Schierbeek (1918-1996) wrote texts for three company photobooks, respectively commissioned by a textile manufacturer, a paper mill and the Dutch association to promote the interests of booksellers. Both in De draad van het verhaal [The threat of the story] (1960), Drievel in het wapen [Three sheets in the coat of arms] (1961) as taal & teken [language and signal] (1965) he fits the metaphor, an important style means of post-war poetry. Perhaps inspired by German-language photo books which came about on the basis of cooperation between an experimental poet and photographer, as Im Ruhrgebiet (1958), but in any case inspired on the letterhead of the GKf and that of its members, Bert Schierbeek had put his contributions in company photobooks only in a Garamond (italic).

De letter op straat
Year of publication: 1956
Publisher: Drukkerij Meijer, Wormerveer
Binding: paperback, sewed
Size: 298 x 234 mm
Number of pages: 16
Number of illustrations: 40 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: street photography; photo reportage
Type of reproduction: offset
Printer: Drukkerij Meijer NV, Wormerveer en Amsterdam
Text: Jan Elburg
Photography: Violette Cornelius
Design: Jurriaan Schrofer
Text: Jan Elburg
Type: Christmas and New Year’s gift
Collection: the Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

A particularly talented occasional team has composed De letter op straat [The letter in the street] (1956). An experimental text is written by poet/writer Jan Elburg (1919-1992), member of De Vijftigers [The Fiftiers] movement, the documentary photography is by Violette Cornelius (1919- 2000) and the innovative design by Jurriaan Schrofer (1926-1990). This one-off publication counts only 16 pages and is the one photobook that printer Meijer in Wormerveer has self-published as a new year's gift. As counterplay of advertising texts and signage in the streets, photographed by Cornelius as part of modern life in the metropolis, Elburg wrote himself advertising slogans in the form of a game on language and concepts. The text, put in a variety of contemporary fonts and colors, acts as a counterpoint to the photographic visual language, which in style and quality is comparable to that of Walker Evans and Helen Levitt.

Over fotografie (Kerstnummer Drukkersweekblad)
Publisher: Drukkerij Meijer NV, Wormer veer/fotogroep GKf, Amsterdam
Year of publication: 1950
Binding: re-printed section in paperback, with cord bind
Size: 320 x 247 mm
Number of pages: 12
Number of photographs: 18 black & white photographs; 4 color
Type of illustrations: humanist photography
Type of reproduction: offset
Printer: Drukkerij Meijer NV, Wormerveer
Photography: Emmy Andriesse, Ed van der Elsken a.o.
Design: Charles A. Jongejans
Text: Anonymous [members photographers union GKf]
Type: re-print promotional brochure
Collection: Jan Wingender Collection, Leusden/Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

In terms of editorial and typographic contribution, the appendixes of the Kerstnummer Drukkersweekblad
[Christmas issue Printer’s weekly] in 1950 were for the first time entirely delivered by graphic designers and
photographers, in short by ‘outsiders’. All of them were united in the professional artists association GKf. A reprint of the photo section from this Christmas issue of the Printer's weekly, entitled Over Fotografie [About Photography], was offered by members of the association of photographers united in the GKf and by printer Meijer NV, to friends and clients, as a New Year’s gift, together with a list of members. Motivations for launching the edition were the rapid advance of the post-war photography and the new possibilities of reproduction technique coinciding with the development of photography. The despair among post-war professional photographers and the status of documentary photography (‘nothing as documentary as only a photograph can be’) in commissioned work, has been described in a text, which has very much the air of a manifesto, and is signed by the 16 members of the ‘photo group GKf’.

80 jaar van Leer
Publisher: Van Leer & Co, Amsterdam
Year of publication: 1949
Binding: spiral, with celluloid front
Size: 313 x 227 mm
Number of pages: 80
Number of illustrations: 44 black & white photographs; 1 color
Type of illustrations: reportage; company profile
Type of reproduction: letter press printing (section on cliché-production): color-collotype
Printer: Van Leer & Co, Amsterdam
Photography: Carel Blazer; Victor Meeussen a.o.
Design: Otto Treumann (cover); H. van Gemert (inner work)
Type: commemoration book
Collection: Jan Wingender Collection, Leusden/Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

80 jaar Van Leer [80 years Van Leer] is a publication on high quality printing. With four pictures of the active staff association the company reportage is concluded. Photographs depict the individual workers and the stages of different printing processes. Besides a tour of the printer's company, activities after working hours are recorded. The large format commemoration book contains illustrations (in appendices) of paintings, manuscripts, mezzotints, labels, schemes, blind stamp, production runs and a fish.

Monsters van de Peel
Publisher: Lecturis, Eindhoven
Year of publication: 1958
Binding: paperback
Size: 20x267mm
Number of pages: 36
Number of illustrations: 13 black & white photographs; 5 monochrome color
Type of illustrations: still lives (subjektive fotografie)
Type of reproduction: letter press printing
Print run: 200
Printer: Van Leer & Co, Amsterdam
Text: Martien Coppens
Photography: Martien Coppens
Design: Herman Rademaker
Language: Dutch
Type: PR instrument
Collection: Jan Wingender Collection, Leusden/Netherlands Fotomuseum Rotterdam

‘In around 1900, work was begun on draining the Peel, a dreary area of flatlands on the borders of Brabant and Limburg with treacherous boggy soil, the source of many a legend and tale. Ancient trunks of trees were thrown up by the marshy peat. These were reguarly collected in a pile and burned. It was in 1951 that Martien Coppens first saw a monstrous face in the carbonized remains. Het spent the next eight years photographing ‘Monters of the Peel’ in land and water, fascinated by the capriciously abstract shapes of the tree trunks that looked like ‘disfigured freaks’ in his imagination. In 1958 the Eindhoven printers Lecturis published Monsters van de Peel as a promotional present with these photos by Martien Coppens and an experimental layout by graphic designer Herman Rademaker’. From: R.S. [Rik Suermondt], ‘Monsters van de Peel’, Frits Gierstberg, Rik Suermondt (ed.), The Dutch Photobook, Rotterdam 2012, 88-89.

Paris Mortel
Publisher: C. De Boer, Hilversum
Year of publication: 1963
Binding: clothbound, with dust jacket/Japanese binding
Size: 287x220mm
Number of pages: 68
Number of illustrations: 65 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: documentary photography
Type of reproduction: intaglio
Print run: 1000
Printer: DEBO, Hilversum
Photography: Johan van der Keuken (editor)
Design: Marius H. Van Raalte
Language: Dutch/French/English/German
Type: PR instrument
Collection: Jan Wingender Collection, Leusden/Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

Paris Mortel is a quadrilingual city book that more or less came about as an aside during a technical course that Johan van der Keuken (1938-2001) followed at the Institut des Hautes Études Cinématographiques (IDHEC) in Paris. A warning against history it is, in which tourist locations are excluded. Inspired by experimental jazz music of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, but also by New York (1956) a revolutionary photobook by William Klein, Johan van der Keuken made a gloomy documentary of the quarter around Gare de l'Est, metro stations and suburbs, of people on the street and children playing, culminating in a political demonstration by the extreme right. The storyline in the book is provided by six scenes and ending at Père Lachaise cemetery. The Dutch publishing world, however, was not ready for the whimsical, Dadaist layout. Eventually Paris Mortel appeared in 1963 as a promotional gift of publishing house C. de Boer in a custom layout.

NV Lettergieterij Amsterdam voorheen N. Tetterode
Publisher: NV Lettergieterij Amsterdam, Amsterdam
Year of publication: 1957
Binding: glewed
Size: 230x260mm
Number of pages: 42
Number of illustrations: 38 black & white photographs; 20 color
Type of illustrations: photo reportage; company profile
Type of reproduction: letter press printing
Printer: NV Lettergieterij Amsterdam
Photography: Anonymous
Design: Mart Kempers
Language: Dutch
Type: PR instrument
Collection: Jan Wingender Collection, Leusden/Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

For the cover Mart Kempers (1924-1994) designed a graphical representation of a letter press mold in silver-grey, with the imprint ‘LA’ in white-green-blue-red. The name of the publisher is put in a vertical line along the binding seam: red on a white background. The booklet is interleaved with matt brown paper and three transparent tabs showing the Columbia letter ‘a’ on respectively millimeter paper, technical drawing, negative film and stencil. NV Typefoundry Amsterdam formerly N. Tetterode is obviously printed in letter press. In 38 photographs you make a tour of the company. One gets an overview of the foundry halls, sees an output channel of a molding machine and freshly casted letters. Also recorded in this book is the way in which typecases and letter trays are sorted, as well as a milling machine for copper lines and the reproduction laboratory with a camera setup.

50 losse steken
Publisher: Nederlandse Bond van Boekbinders-patroons, Amsterdam
Year of publication: 1959
Binding: perfect binding
Size: 210x170mm
Number of pages: 112
Number of illustrations: 63 black & white photographs
Type of illustrations: reportage; documentary photography
Type of reproduction: letter press printing
Printer: NV Drukkerij Sigfried, Amsterdam
Text: E. Elias; J.P.M. van Santen
Photography: Cas Oorthuys; Erich Salamon; Frits Gerritsen; Louis van Paridon
Design: Hans Barvelink
Language: Dutch
Type: commemoration book (50 year anniversary)
Collection: Jan Wingender Collection, Leusden/Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

50 losse steken [50 loose stitches] (1959) was commissioned by the Dutch Federation of bookbinderspatrons on the occasion of its 50 year anniversary. In photographs originating from photographers’ archives, as well as commissioned work by Cas Oorthuys, Frits Gerritsen, Erich Saloman and Louis van Paridon the jubilee booklet shows highlights from fifty years of world history. By way of images in the form of rhyme, and using all kinds of ads, illustrations and illustrated press, fifty pages are
devoted to world events and fifty to bookbinding.

Taal & Teken
Publisher: Vereniging ter Bevordering van de Belangen des Boekhandels
Year of publication: 1965
Binding: paperbound
Size: 280x200mm
Number of pages: 80
Number of illustrations: 45 black & white photographs, 7 color
Type of illustrations: reportage
Type of reproduction: letter press printing; copper plate printing
Printer: NV Drukkerij Confiance, Amsterdam; Nederlandsche Rotogravure Maatschappij NV, Leiden
Text: Bert Schierbeek
Photography: Cas Oorthuys
Design: Mart Kempers
Type: commemoration book
Collection: Jan Wingender Collection, Leusden/Netherlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

Writer-poet Bert Schierbeek (1918-1996), member from the ‘Fiftiers’ movement, wrote texts for three company photobooks, respectively commissioned by a textile manufacturer, a paper mill and the Dutch association to promote the interests of booksellers. Both in De draad van het verhaal [The threat of the story] (1960), Drievel in het wapen [Three sheets in the coat of arms] (1961) as taal & teken [language and signal] (1965) he fits the metaphor, an important style means of modern post-war poetry. Perhaps inspired by German-language photo books which came about on the basis of cooperation between an experimental poet and photographer, as Im Ruhrgebiet (1958), but in any case inspired on the letterhead of the GKf and that of its members, Bert Schierbeek had put his contributions in company photobooks only in a Garamond italic.

Heynowski & Scheumann: Kannibalen (PARR/BADGER III)

The cover of the book, published in 1980. Its foreword begins: "America's Favorites is a time capsule for the 25th century. It presents in formal array 75 of the most popular enduring foods, confections, and beverages of America in our time. Each one is as familiar and beloved as the Statue of Liberty, Whistler's Mother, a Norman Rockwell cover, or a Grandma Moses landscape." Other examples not included here: Goobers, Wheaties, Tony's Pizza, Cheez Doodles, Campbell's Pork & Beans, Spam.


AMERICA'S FAVORITES