MANIFESTAZIONE DE S[AN] REMO [Album of Italian Fashion Photographs] by Urbani, Eda - 1937

Sanremo: n.p., 1937. Near fine.. Original photo album documenting a fashion show held on Jan. 16-17, 1937, with most photographs taken by Eda Urbani (1908-2001), an Italian photojournalist who covered the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and later became an interior designer. Urbani's work was the subject of a 2008 traveling exhibition compiled by Turin's Associazione per la Fotografia Storica (which described her as "one of the first female photojournalists") and is uncommon at auction. This album includes photos of women sporting fashions by Italian designers, all credited in the captions (Rivella Torino, Gambino Torino, others), and displaying styles emblematic of the period: heavy fur coats, billowy dresses, and hat veils. Altogether a gorgeous display of period fashion, and a fine record of the photo work of Urbani, whose work remains largely unheralded outside Italy. Oblong album in string-tied cloth-covered boards. 36 gelatin-silver prints, plus seven prints of fashion-figure drawings, all 9" by 6.75" approx. and mounted on stiff gray leaves with handwritten captions throughout; 24 of the prints signed (stamped) by Eda Urbani. Album appears complete, with a bit of rippling to some pages, but all photos remain bright, clean, and sharp.