COBURN, Alvin Langdon (1882-1966) – SHELLEY, Percy Bysshe (1792-1822). The Cloud. Los Angeles: C.C. Parker, 1912.

Limited edition, signed by the artist, of Coburn’s photographic ode to the American landscape, association copy of California photographer Fred William Carter. Shelley’s dreamy poem on the cycles of nature is here illustrated by six mounted photographs of Yosemite and the Grand Canyon by the American pictorialist photographer Alvin Langdon Coburn. Of it, he wrote: “Clouds are especially good subject matter for the photographer ... the patterns of moving clouds and water are never the same now to all eternity, and these patterns are ever moving to our continual delight.” While Coburn is best known for his pioneering abstract and symbolist work in black and white, these photos of the Western United States helped to inspire the creation of the National Park Service. According to his autobiography, the intended run of 60 copies was never completed. This is copy no. 11. See Coburn, Alvin Langdon Coburn, Photographer, p. 46.

Quarto (305 x 235mm). 6 original platinum prints, mounted on sheets. Original cloth-backed paper boards, with paper title label on cover (wear to caps and some spotting to cloth, light wear to corners). Provenance: Fred William Carter (California photographer; signature on flyleaf, dated San Francisco, February 1913).