Lot 196: DONIGAN CUMMING

DONIGAN CUMMING
The Stage. Montreal: Maquam Press, 1991.

Octavo (244 x 165 mm). 248 black and white photographs, most with Cumming's annotations in black pen at the bottom. Original photo-illustrated card wrappers; in a black cloth folding case with the item below.

Gelatin silver print (255 x 200 mm), signed by Cumming in pencil on the verso. Provenance: Donigan Cumming (inscriptions)

FIRST EDITION, A UNIQUE COPY WITH THE MAJORITY OF THE SUBJECTS IDENTIFIED BY CUMMING, AND WITH A GELATIN SILVER PRINT SIGNED BY CUMMING. In many cases Cumming has also annotated the images with the subject's current status: "alive", "alive?", "gone mad", "beaten to death", "dead", etc. The photograph is a repro print, one of the prints sent to the plate-maker, and identified as such by Cumming on the verso. "Donigan Cumming is a unique talent. The only photographer who can be compared to him in terms of making transgressive portraits is Diane Arbus"; "each individual portrait represents a little psychodrama played out on the stage that is the picture frame" (The Photobook). The Photobook, vol. II, p.117. (2)