Edition : Second Printing / Milan / Damiani / 2014 / Hardcover. / Fine 4to, ca 120pp. Printed boards. Numerous Colour plates, Text in English.
This is the fourth copy of this book I have had, but the first time I’ve been able to keep it in the shop long enough to actually catalog it. “This volume is the first comprehensive compendium of Charles H. Traub’s vivid, color photographs made in early 1980s, from Milan to Marsala. Characteristic of his imagery is a candid intimacy that combines humor and spontaneity, which makes us long for an Italy that maybe only once was. Brilliant blues, reds, and yellows engulf the baroque posturing and gestures of strangers and ordinary people who become fond archetypical caricatures. Traub’s friend and guide, the late photographer Luigi Ghirri, said of the imagery, “You see our foibles, strip us bare, make love through the camera, and then venerate us.”