He’s not just a book lover, he’s a book hunter. He breathes books. Bruno Mouron didn’t spend his days at Paris Photo browsing exhibitions, but the stands of the 35 publishers who attended the fair. Here is his selection:
The Buenos Aires newcomer Anticuaria Poema 20 presented a selection of rare photography books from the 1930s to the 1980s, including a copy of Horacio Coppola’s Buenos Aires in mint condition for 5600€.
Matthew Zucker’s New York bookstore presented Moriyama’s photographs of Japan, and Robert Frank’s The Americans. There is also Owen Simmons’ Book of Bread (London: Maclaren and Sons, 1903).
The celebrated Amsterdam bookstore owned by Dirk K. Bakker offers a wide variety of Nordic books from Ed Van der Elsken’s Douceur de vivre (1968) to Sanne Sannes Oog Om Oog (1964, 850€), and a perfect copy of Sex à gogo by the same author (750€), not to mention Marc Attali’s Erotique du regard (750€).
The Parisian bookstore Chloé et Denis Ozanne, on the Rue de Provence, has been a pioneer in photography books since the 1970s. One of them is The The Beautiful Book by Jack Smith, who rubbed shoulders with Andy Warhol, Nan Goldin, Robert Wilson and other figures of the New York underground. The book consists of 19 55x55mm original photographs. Then there’s a mint copy signed by Marian Zazeela published by Devauchelle (27,500€).
Antoine de Beaupré has managed over the course of ten years to compile a complete collection of books by Bernd & Hilla Becher. There is also Moï Ver’s Paris (28,000€).
At Steidl you can find Los Alamos Revisited, a 3-volume box set looking back at the work of William Eggleston (248€), and an homage to Chanel, La Petite Robe Noire by Karl Lagerfeld and Karine Roitfeld, featuring a cast of characters posing in iconic black jackets (50€).
Bruno Mouron, Photographer and Collector.
