Josef Sudek 1896-1976

(Prague: Drustevní práce, 1928, an edition of 120), a portfolio of 15 photographs of Saint Vitus Cathedral, each mounted to heavy Van Gelder paper, a sequential numerical stamp on the reverse, 1928; together with the printed title, plate list, introduction by Jaroslav Durych, and colophon signed by the photgrapher and numbered '2' in an unidentified hand in ink.  Folio, black heavy paper portfolio with red and silver lion design on the front cover, no. 2 in an edition of 120

Sudek began photographing St. Vitus Cathedral around 1926.  He arranged to publish a selection of these images with Druzstevní práce, Prague's most important artist's publishing cooperative, which counted the photographers Jaromir Funke, Drahomir Ruzicka, and Adolf Schneeberger, as well as Sudek, among its members.  Druzstevní práce published the magazines Panorama, which frequently featured Sudek's photographs, and Zijeme (Living).  Sudek recalled that 'Druzstevní práce was decisive for me...[they] published 15 photographs of the final construction work on the cathedral.  We seemed to suit each other and I don't think that I could have reached an agreement with anyone else.  It was a working relationship but a sympathetic one.  The St. Vitus project was [Druzstevní práce founder] Frinta's idea' (Fárová, Josef Sudek, p. 49).  The collective gave Sudek his first solo exhibition in 1932.