1935 Fabringer guide to portrait photography

Fabinger, Jaroslav – Portrét [Portrait]
Prague: Knihovna časopisu Fotografie, 1935. 8vo. 53 pp. text + 12 pp. publisher's advertisements + 12 pp. photographic appendix. Original photographic card wrappers. Very good condition, very nicely preserved. In Czech.

Early Czech manual devoted entirely to the art and technique of portrait photography. Written by photographer and instructor Jaroslav Fabinger, the volume combines practical instruction with a systematic analysis of pose, lighting, facial expression, composition, retouching, cropping, and studio practice. Chapters discuss photographic equipment and materials, artificial and natural lighting sources, reflectors, backgrounds, portrait psychology, the relationship of head, body and eye position, as well as the aesthetic and technical refinement of the finished image.

Illustrated with twelve pages of photographic plates reproducing portrait studies and lighting examples, demonstrating the principles discussed in the text. The striking wrapper design features a mounted photographic portrait and modernist typography characteristic of Czech photographic publishing of the mid-1930s.

Issued as the first volume in the Knihovna časopisu Fotografie (Library of the journal Fotografie), an important series documenting the rapid development of Czech photographic culture during the interwar period.