Book Detail
Art and Photography
The Face of Love
South Brunswick, NJ/London: A.S. Barnes/Thomas Yoseloff 1972.
4to.; illustrated throughout in black and white; mauve boards stamped in pink; pictorial dust-jacket. Near fine, with faint wear at head and heel of the spine but altogether clean and bright.
First edition. A beautiful copy of a scarce book. Sanne Sannes was already approaching the status of legend in 1967 when, having just turned 30, he was killed in a car crash. Only one small book, Oog om oog, (Amsterdam, 1964) had been published in his lifetime, with his next book, Sex a gogo, appearing posthumously (Amsterdam, 1969). The Face of Love was the first publication outside Europe and it established his reputation. He is described on the dust-jacket as “the Marquis de Sade of Holland.” This is publisher’s hyperbole, but Sannes’ grainy, intimate portraits were achieved through intense engagement with his models and at their best his photos achieve an ecstatic eroticism that sets his work apart.
$1,200
