APOLLO
Making History

Nearly half a century since Neil Armstrong became the first man to step foot on the Moon, the NASA photographs from the Apollo missions remain as awe-inspiring as when they were first seen.
 
Playing out against a backdrop of Cold War tension, the Apollo programme comprised seventeen missions with the goal of landing humans on the Moon and returning them safely to Earth. Racing for both nuclear weapons and the moon, the USSR and the United States competed to prove their ideological and technological superiority.
 
One of the motivations for photographing the missions was to produce visible evidence of these successful ventures: enduring images for study and enjoyment.
The astronauts and scientists involved with the Apollo missions must surely have known they were making history, but perhaps they may not have anticipated how beautiful that history would be, and how cherished.
 
Apollos VII and IX orbited the Earth, whereas Apollos VIII and X orbited the Moon, returning photography of the lunar far side and a series of stunning Earth Rise pictures. This view of our planet from space inspires serenity – a new sense of perspective, of our place in a vast and mysterious cosmos.
 
The world held its breath while Apollo VIII was in the shadow of the moon. While this was an American endeavour it was a global event, transmitted via radio and received by dozens of stations around the Earth. Every time Apollo VIII slipped behind the far side of the Moon, radio contact with Earth was lost. Millions of people on Earth listened to the crackling silence until 45 minutes later Mission Control in Houston reported: „We‘ve got it! Apollo 8 is in lunar orbit,“ and Astronaut Lovell responded: „Good to hear your voice.“
In this collection of vintage Apollo pictures, silver gelatin prints on fibre paper show us the cratered topography of the moon. Vivid colour prints bring us scenes of the first moonwalk in distinct Kodak hues. These photographs have a timeless appeal and yet are very much of the time in which they were made. Their materiality gives them particular historical resonance – they are physical pieces of history, imbued with the zeitgeist of the era.
 
Apollo XI was the first manned lunar landing. The photographs of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon are some of the defining images of the 20th century post-WWII, a time of rapid technological innovation and social change.
 
The simple yet remarkable photo of Buzz Aldrin’s footprint in lunar soil portrays this first imprinting of the human body on the moon, an event that is etched in our collective consciousness and inseparable from our ideas of America and the Western world in the late 1960s.
 
Later Apollo missions deployed a Lunar Roving Vehicle that allowed astronauts to further explore lunar geology, taking pictures and collecting samples from the Moon’s surface.
 
Among the pictures in this pamphlet we see a man standing on the roof of a car, American flag in one hand and binoculars in the other. His eyes are on the skies, watching the Apollo VIII lift-off, a photograph that in many ways encapsulates the mood of the time.
 
text by Carrie Foulkes, 2018

 

Printed and bound by Pelo-Druck Lohner oHG
Paper content: Offset 60g/m2
Paper cover: Olin, Rough, cream, 200g/m2
 
32 pages, 24 images
15×21 cm, softcover
 
Editor: Daniel Blau
Authors: Carrie Foulkes
 
Purchase your copy here  

 
 

Émile Zola

Rather than thinking of Zola as a novelist who took pictures, we may instead
come to view him as an artist who both wrote and made photographs.
 
Zola’s photographs demonstrate a remarkable technical ability as well as a sensitivity to the
character and mood of his subjects. The same attention to detail evident in his novels is visible in Zola’s portraits of his son, which were taken around the time of the famous Dreyfus Affair at the end of the 19th century.
 
A small catalogue featuring texts by Carrie Foulkes and Lindsey Stewart is being published.
 
Printed and bound by Pelo-Druck Lohner oHG
Paper content: Pakopharm Offset Dünndruck Papier 50g/m2
Paper cover: Olin, Rough, cream, 200g/m2
 
32 pages, 11 images
15×21 cm, softcover
 
Editor: Daniel Blau
Authors: Carrie Foulkes, Lindsey Stewart
 
©2018, Daniel Blau, Munich
 

1937 – Japan Attacks China! is the second volume in a series that explores historical events that have often been overlooked and untold through the medium of photography. The first volume, Misled: German Youth 1933-1945, examines and investigates the role of the German youth during the Nazi regime from 1933-1945. Daniel Blau is proud to present to the public 1937 – Japan Attacks China!, and for the first time in 80 years 146 recently discovered photographs of this horrific conflict.

 

Details: Photographs by Rudolph Brandt and Joy Lacks

 

Hardcover, 222 pages, 146 illustrations, 25,4 x 17,8 cm
Edited by Daniel Blau.
Texts by Pearl Lam, Dr. Tilman Spengler, Ryan Adams and Daniel Blau.

 

ISBN: 9 78300 547362

 

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Extra! Weegee features 359 vintage photographs in vivid detail. Until now, his photographs and eye witness accounts have never been available together. The photographs and stories originate from the archiv of the Newspaper Enterprise Association, the parent company of Acme Newspictures. Recently identified, the works presented are magnified by the excitement of rediscovering a lost archive.
 
Extra! Weegee continues to proclaim Weegee’s legacy as a unrivaled photographer and master storyteller.
 
With contributions by Ryan Adams, Daniel Blau, Herbert Corey and Sydney Picasso
342 pages, 359 illustrations,
30 × 24 cm, hardcover, dust jacket
€ 40 plus shipping
 
ISBN: 978-3-7774-2813-0
 
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MISLED: German Youth 1933 – 1945

 

VERFÜHRT: Deutsche Jugendliche 1933 -1945

 

Daniel Blau has, for many years, produced exhibitions and catalogues with historic photographs. We are excited to launch the first edition of Misled at Paris Photo’s 20th anniversary edition on November 10th.

 

Misled examines and illustrates the role of the youth during the Nazi regime 1933-45.

 

The photographs shown in the publication are mainly German propaganda images found in American press archives (all dating 1933-1945), as well as collected over the course of many years at auction as well as through English and French photography dealers.

 

The Nazis created both the technical and administrative conditions for the widespread dissemination and political use of photographs. This powerful image-distribution is clearly themetised in the book through its illustrating the accompanying slugs which were originally pasted onto the actual photographic print by the American news agencies. Some of the prints have their slugs from German news or photo services. The slugs’ function is not simply to describe the image but to provide the journalist with as much precise factual information as possible in order to elucidate his angle on a story. In this case, it’s a fascinating insight into a foreign interpretation of German war propaganda. Similar to the disturbing images we see today of IS-fighters and jihadists who exploit children for warfare, Nazis introduced children at the earliest possible age to their ideological and political systems in order to make them an essential part of their political apparatus and warfare.

 

What does it mean to witness such atrocities? Misled discusses the relationship between image and text. Included are transcriptions of conversations Daniel Blau had with eye-witnesses. In order to show the complex relationships between photojournalism, propaganda, and the function of text, Daniel Blau’s interviews have been left unedited, which not only amplifies their youthful tone but also helps further reflect the function of (photo-)journalism.

 

The images cover a range of themes from daily life, to military exercise and training. Included are a range of photographs showing young boys and girls playfully training with gas masks, sporting rallies as well as music events as well as young teens in uniforms or even as prisoners of war. The book is compiled in chronological order. These pictures clearly show the consequences of political and ideological exploitation faced by the Hitler Youth.

 

Misled clearly offers its audience a distinct and unparalleled insight into the subject matter. It attempts to uncover how these photographs targeted society then and what effects these images produce today. Much of the literature surrounding National Socialism use photographs for illustrative purposes rather than as documents in their own right. Misled offers a unique perspective through these powerful images and personal accounts.

 

Misled explores how history is based on many layers of subjective chronicles, how memory is simply an interpretation of occurrences. History doesn’t merely recount events, rather it is a subjective experience which is continuously constructed.

 

192 pages, 83 illustrations,
25 x 18,5 cm, flexocover
bilingual German/English

 

Edition:
1500 English Cover
1000 German Cover

 

€ 30 plus shipping

 

English ISBN: 9 783000 547362
German ISBN: 9 783000 547355
 
Order your copy exclusivly here: contact@danielblau.com
 

 
Purchase your copy here  

See press coverage here 

 

In 2011 a sensational find came tolight in Andy Warhol’s estate: an extensive collection of drawings that provides impressive evidence of Warhol’s artistic talents. He used iconic photographs and magazin illustrations, many of which were taken from LIFE magazin, as inspiration. This publication explores these sources and presents them in juxtaposition.

 

196 pages, 123 colour and b/w illustrations, 24x32cm
hardcover, dustjacket

Hirmer Verlag, Editor Graphische Sammlung ETH Zürich
text in german / english

€ 40 plus shipping

 

ISBN: 978-3-7774-2438-5

 

Purchase your copy here

 

Exhibition cataloge with interviews of Dianne Brill, Ronnie Cutrone, Vincent Fremont by Daniel Blau.
 
36 pages, 24 x 16,5 cm, paperback
 
Published by Daniel Blau, Munich, 1998

 

Catalogue published by Daniel Blau, Munich and Anton Kern Gallery, NY, 2003-2004.

 

Essay by James Hofmaier
72 pages, 25 illustrations
24 x 29,8 cm, paperback

 

Published by Daniel Blau, 2011.

 

Edited by Daniel Blau and Klaus Maaz.

 

Texts by K. Maaz, S. Picasso and A.J P. Meyer.

 

The fish hook derives its form from its practical intention – to catch a fish. But in cultures where fishing is and always has been a main livelihood, the crafting of fish hooks becomes an Art. This volume features more than 600 fish hooks used by the peoples of the Pacific Islands, with life-size illustrations and accompanying texts. This is the product of a collaboration of private collectors and is the first extensive monograph on the subject since the 1928 volume Pacific Island Record: Fishhooks by Harry Beasley.
 
Purchase your copy here  
 

 
 

From Silverpoint to Silver Screen
Early Drawings of Andy Warhol 1949-1959

 

Campbell´s soup cans, the banana album cover from The Velvet Underground and quirky colour-adjusted panels of film stars and artists – Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson – are all immediately recognisable as Andy Warhol´s work. But he was also a skilled draftsman, filling early sketchbooks with freehand drawings of still lifes and portraits of friends.
From Silverpoint to Silver Screen brings together more than 100 of Warhol´s early drawings, from the 1950s. They show great great technical ability and are executed in Warhol´s characteristic blotted-line-technique, which involved tracing projected photographic images onto paper and blotting the inked figures to creative variations on a theme. Many drawings were completed during Warhol´s early years in New York and include award-winning commercial illustriations and assignments from his studies at the Carnegie Institute of Technology. Other images demonstrate his take on the dark side of society. The book includes insightful essays on the young Andy Warhol and the art scene of the 1950s. This groundbreaking publication reveals a lesser-known side of Warhol and gives insight into a time of uncertainty and excitement in his development.

 

Essays by J. Hofmaier and S. Picasso
Text: English/German
248 pages, 120 colour illustrations
24 x 28, hardcover
€ 50 plus shipping

 

ISBN: 978-3-7774-5341-5
 
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Please contact the gallery for further details.