Between the Covers

Hardcover. Large cloth clamshell portfolio (16½" x 20¾") stamped in white on the spine, housing ten large gelatin silver photographs (mostly averaging about 11" x 14"). Slight wear at the top corner of the box else near fine; the photographs are fine. One of 25 sets, each image is matted and numbered as number 8 of 25 and Signed by Delano. Laid in is a label from Sonnabend Gallery in New York, with the hand written note "8/25 Jack Delano", whether they produced the set or just distributed it is unclear.

A Russian-born Jew, Delano emigrated to the U.S. in 1923 and after attending the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts, became one of several respected photographers, along with Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, and Gordon Parks who worked for the FSA during the Depression. Delano was also a talented composer and musician, studying at Philadelphia's Curtis Institute.

The subjects represented in the portfolio are mostly of rustic country people. Although unidentified, several are likely of Appalachian farmers and hill people. Included are images of an elderly Black man playing a small accordion on a porch, a white farmer at a plow, a picket fence with a hill town in the background, a Black woman in the bedroom of a rustic shack, a farmer and his wife laughing, etc.

Item #461427