Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads.

An 'epoch making' photographic album. Of the utmost rarity - Emerson's first publication comprising 40 platinum prints.Peter Henry Emerson is a crucial figure in the evolution of fine art photography, from its roots in the nineteenth century to its modernist manifestation in the early twentieth century. In Life and Landscape in the Norfolk Broads, his first and most important book, Emerson, accompanied by his friend, the artist Thomas Goodall, sought to document the disappearing traditions of rural working life. They capture scenes of reed harvesters, marshmen, and eel catchers, balancing scientific and artistic developments in photography, social reportage, and natural history. The photographs, twenty-seven by Emerson and Goodall and thirteen by Emerson alone, are accompanied by a text describing aspects of life in and around the inland waterways of the Norfolk Broads.'The subtle prints and insightful handling of the subjects combine to make this the most important of Emerson's illustrated books. The text gives sociological dimension to photographs that are cornerstones of British photographic estheticism' (Truthful Lens)According to Robert S. Kahan and J.B. Colson in their bibliography, a deluxe edition of 100 copies with a vellum cover decorated in black and gold and 750 ordinary copies in green cloth were initially advertised, but only twenty-five of the deluxe edition and 175 copies of the ordinary edition were issued

First edition; oblong folio (300 x 420 mm, 11¾ x 16½ in); frontispiece and 39 platinum prints made by Valentine & Son, Dundee, mounted on card, printed guard sheets, accompanied by descriptive letterpress, disbound for display, repairs to title-page and text leaves, some foxing, lacking half-title, prints are in fresh condition; modern cloth portfolio incorporating the original cloth-covered boards with a pictorial image and title in gilt on upper side; 3-81, [1]pp.

Peter Henry Emerson: An Annotated Bibliography p77; The Truthful Lens 50; The Photobook: A History I, pp70-1; Imagining Paradise pp186–8.