Sergio Larrain Bundle

Collect both Valparaíso and London by Sergio Larrain and save 25%! Sergio Larrain: London In the winter of 1958, Sergio Larrain traveled to London. He spent just a few months there, photographing subjects that interested him and embracing the shadows of the city. In the cold and damp, his images captured a tangible darkness in which he could “materialize that world of phantoms.” A few years later, he joined Magnum Photos and set off around the world, before retiring to the Chilean countryside and leaving photography behind. The book also features a text by the late Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño—written in 1999 specifically to accompany these images—as well as a new essay by Agnès Sire, artistic director of Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, detailing Larrain’s stay in London. Sergio Larrain: Valparaíso A notoriously reclusive artist, Sergio Larrain had a photographic career that was relatively short before he retreated to the Chilean countryside in the late 1960s to study meditation. Nevertheless, he is widely celebrated for his experimental process and the raw imagery he produced throughout Europe and Latin America. His most well-known project, Valparaíso, began in 1957 while he was traveling with poet Pablo Neruda for Du magazine. When the photographs were first published in 1991, Larrain informed the publishers that he had made his own facsimile of the book, reflecting how he would have constructed the layout, and now this facsimile is beautifully produced for the first time in book form. Including text by the celebrated Pablo Neruda as well as correspondence between Larrain and Henri Cartier-Bresson, Valparaíso presents the long-awaited return of this rare and renowned body of work.

Sergio Larrain: London
Format: Hardback
Number of pages: 176
Number of images: 94
Publication date: 2021-01-26
Measurements: 9.6 x 7.25 x 0.65 inches
ISBN: 9781597115001

 

Sergio Larrain: Valparaíso
Format: Hardback
Number of pages: 212
Number of images: 120
Publication date: 2017-01-20
Measurements: 9.25 x 6.5 x 0.9 inches
ISBN: 9781597114134

Sergio Larrain (1931–2012, born in Santiago, Chile) began taking photographs in the streets of Santiago and Valparaiso after studying at the University of California, Berkeley; the early purchase of two images by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, reassured him in his chosen profession. After presenting a project on los abandonados (street children in Santiago) to Henri Cartier-Bresson, he was invited to join Magnum Photos in 1960; around this time, he also began what would become a legendary project on Valparaiso with a text by poet Pablo Neruda. Unsure if he was suited to working for the press, Larrain retreated to the Chilean countryside, dedicating himself to yoga, meditation, and drawing until his death in 2012.