PHOTOGRAPHY

The first publication in English of Sergio Larrain’s much-prized Valparaíso. Agnès Sire has been the director of the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris since its creation in 2003. Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971.

120 illustrations 23.5 x 16.5 cm 212pp hardback ISBN 978 0 500 544808 January £40.00

Sergio Larrain: Valparaíso Texts by Agnès Sire and Pablo Neruda Sergio Larrain (1931–2012) published very few books during his lifetime, but perhaps the most fêted among them was Valparaíso. He photographed this Chilean seaport throughout his career, but it was in the early 1960s, when he returned to his homeland after travelling the world for many years as a Magnum photographer, that it became a focus for his attention. He saw it as ‘a rather sordid yet romantic city’, standing between the Andes and the Pacific Ocean, falling into a slow decline as its trading importance faded away, yet still retaining hints of beauty and magic. Now published in English for the first time with an essay by Agnès Sire as well as a specially written text by Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda, this new edition of Valparaíso is based on a layout that Larrain designed in 1993, in response to the original French edition of 1991. It includes a selection of previously unpublished photographs taken between 1952 and 1992, expanding the original 36 images to a total of 120. This intimate book features handwritten notes and texts by the artist himself, allowing us to share his singular vision of the world and its moments of grace.

‘If we walk up and down every staircase in Valparaíso, we will have made a trip around the world’ Pablo Neruda

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