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Miguel Rio Branco: Silent Book

Publisher: São Paulo: Cosac & Naify, 1997
Edition: 1st Edition
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN: 8586374210
Condition: Near Fine / No dust jacket as issued
Item #: 110096

$950.00

Specifics

First edition, first printing. Hardcover. Photographically illustrated paper-covered boards; no dust jacket as issued. Photographs by Miguel Rio Branco. Designed by Jean Yves Cousseau. Unpaginated (92 pp., with 3 two-page gatefolds), with 75 four-color plates. 7-3/4 x 7-3/4 inches. [Cited in Martin Parr and Gerry Badger, The Photobook: A History, Volume II. (London and New York: Phaidon, 2006) and in Horacio Fernández, The Latin American Photobook. Aperture Foundation and Fundación Televisa, 2011.]

Condition

Near Fine (moderate stray surface marks, visible only in raking light, slight abrasions to the corners, else Fine).

Description

From Parr and Badger: "The book begins with an enigmatic image of an ominous, half-open doorway, followed by one of a glittering knife, and we are soon at the heart of the matter -- the dark, sweaty Santa Rosa gym. The recurring metaphors revolve around violence, death, religion, poverty. His images of the gym, and also of a bullfight, suggest that the sacramental violence offered in sport is not, as some suggest, an incitement to violence outside, but a way to mitigate or break the cycle. The stage-managed violence of the boxing ring or bull-fighting arena is a release for the frustration of the poor and for the lucky few who might have the talent for it -- an escape."