Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
FRANK, Robert. Flower Is (Limited Edition). Tokyo: Yugensha, 1987.
Price: US$4500.00 + shipping
Description: First Edition. Folio. Limited to 500 copies. Designed by Kohei Suguira and Atsushi Sato. A memorial to Frank's daughter killed in a plane crash in 1974. Frank's Paris flowers, shot between 1949-1951, set an elegiac tone for this somber book. The beautiful design and printing only add to the reverent tenor of the images. (Parr / Badger, v1, 264; Auer 670). As new in gray silk boards, publisher's matching slipcase with a black and white plate "Champs-Élysées, 1950 [Fleurs]" tipped onto the front cover, housed in the original cardboard mailing box.
Seller: Harper's Books, ABAA, New York, NY, U.S.A.
FRANK, Robert.. Flower Is.. Tokyo Yugensha / Kazuhiko Motomura, 1987.
Price: US$5445.00 + shipping
Description: First edition; folio (342 x 251 mm, 13½ x 10 in); black-and-white photographs printed in offset, design by Sugiura Kohei and Sato Atsushi, occasional light dust speckle marks spotted out by hand by Motomura; grey silk-covered boards, titles stamped in dark grey on spine and upper side, publisher's grey paper-covered board slipcase with titles stamped in dark grey on spine, original shipping carton, fine; [112]pp. Flower Is contains three bodies of work: photographs taken in Paris of flowers, flower sellers, and chance encounters on the street, the River Rouge car factory in Detroit, and polaroids made in Mabou Mines, Nova Scotia. It is the second of three books Frank made with Motomura Kazuhiko, a collector of photographs and photography books and occasional publisher, each designed by Sugiura Kohei. 'By 1949 I had lived in New York City for two years. When I returned to Paris, I was 26. The beauty of that city touched me. Returning to America I began to look at Americans. and began to photograph the city and factory which produced the American car. The summer of 1955 was hot and after two days at the River Rouge Plant in Detroit I was told to leave the factory. I travelled south and was astonished to see black people treated as inferiors. I experienced the suspicion against anything not "American". I was learning about American determination to win. Flowers of Paris is memory. After the publication of The Americans in 1959, a slow fade begins. Filmmaking replaces the single frame photograph!' The Photobook: A History I, p264; Auer Collection p670.
Seller: Shapero Rare Books, London, United Kingdom
Frank, Robert. Flower Is. Yugensha (Kazuhiko Motomura), Tokyo, 1987.
Price: US$5500.00 + shipping
Condition: As New
Description: Yugensha, Tokyo [1987], 1987. Book Condition: As new , unnumbered pages, cloth with cloth slipcase, paste down illustration from a Robert Frank photograph on front of slipcase, Printed in an edition of 500 copies with text in English and Japanese with 81 reproductions from photographs by Robert Frank. This copy features the image, "Champs Elysees, 1950" that is reproduced in volume one of "The Photobook" by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger on page 264. The other variant image is "Metro Stalingrade". The second book published by Frank's associate and friend Kazuhiku Motomura. This copy in mint condition with the original cardboard shipping container. First Edition edition. Images of the actual book will be provided upon request.
Seller: Assaf Books and Art, Palmdale, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$6050.00 + shipping
Condition: As New
Description: First edition, first and only printing. Limited edition of 500 unnumbered copies. Hardcover. Fine light gray silk cloth with title and graphic design of a flower stamped in dark gray on front cover and title stamped on spine, housed in a matching cloth slipcase with a black and white plate (5 1/2 x 8 3/8 inches, "Metro Stalingrade" variant, also reproduced in plate number 5 of the book) tipped in the front cover and title stamped in dark gray on side (matching the book's spine), no dust jacket as issued. Photographs and text (in English and Japanese) by Robert Frank. Includes a list of plates (in Japanese). Designed by Kohei Sugiura and Atsushi Co., Ltd. 112 pp. with 81 black and white plates, beautifully printed on fine art paper by Nissha Printing Co., Ltd. 13 3/4 x 10 1/8 inches (slipcase is 14 1/8 x 10 3/8 inches). A pristine, flawless copy (opened only for inspection). Out of print. Extremely scarce. [Cited in Martin Parr and Gerry Badger, The Photobook: A History, Volume I. (London and New York: Phaidon, 2004).]. As New in publisher's original cardboard shipping box. An excerpt from "The Photobook: A History, Volume 1" by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger: "Flower Is" is a memorial to his daughter, Andrea, who was killed in an airplane crash in Guatemala in 1974. The book is in three "stream-of-consciousness" suites, which correspond to three different periods in the photographer's life. The first suite consists of flower photographs taken in Paris between 1949 and 1951; the second, photographs of Detroit car factories and pictures of the American South in 1955; the third and final suite, photographs of Nova Scotia taken between 1976 and 1984. Robert Frank continues to call Nova Scotia home but visits New York, where he is sometimes "sighted" on one of his lonely walks. "The whole tenor of the book is forlorn, which may be the best adjective that describes Frank's work as a whole. Never have flowers, that most uplifting of photographic subjects, appeared so woebegone. Seldom has the manic activity of industrial manufacture seemed so pointless. And the Nova Scotia landscapes and still lifes (beautiful, bleak, elegiac) reveal an artist at the height of his powers but hardly at peace with the world or himself."
Seller: Vincent Borrelli, Bookseller, Albuquerque, NM, U.S.A.
Frank, Robert.. Flower is. Tokyo, Yugensha, Kazuhiko Motomura, 1987.
Price: US$6446.80 + shipping
Condition: As New
Description: Pleine soie grise frappée noir sur le premier plat et au dos. L'un des 500 exemplaires avec la photographie « Champs-Élysées » contrecollée sur son étui de toile beige avec le titre et signature du photographe frappé au dos, 34 × 35 cm. Conception graphique de Kohei Sugiura, 112 pages, introduction de Robert Frank et 81 photographies somptueusement reproduites. Ref: Parr & Badger vol. I, p. 264; M+MAuer 670. Exemplaire à l état de neuf dans son carton d'expédition d'origine.
Seller: La Chambre Noire, Lausanne, VD, Switzerland
Frank, Robert. Flower Is. Yugensha, Tokyo [1987], 1987.
Price: US$6565.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: 13 1/2 x 10 inches, unnumbered pages, cloth with cloth slipcase, paste down illustration from a Robert Frank photograph on front of slipcase, Printed in an edition of 500 copies with text in English and Japanese with 81 reproductions from photographs by Robert Frank. There are two variants for the paste down image on the slipcase. This copy features the image, "Champs Elysees, 1950" that is reproduced in volume one of "The Photobook" by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger on page 264. The other variant image is "Metro Stalingrade". The second book published by Frank's associate and friend Kazuhiku Motomura. This copy in mint condition with the original cardboard shipping container. First Edition edition. Fine.
Seller: Dawson's Book Shop, ABAA, ILAB, Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.
Frank, Robert. Flower Is.. Yugensha, Tokyo, 1987.
Price: US$7700.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: LIMITED FIRST EDITION, ONE OF ONLY 500 COPIES. A FINE COPY IN THE ORIGINAL SHIPPING BOX. Created "primarily as a memorial album to his daughter, Andrea, who was killed in an aeroplane crash . the whole tenor of the book is forlorn. Never have flowers-that most uplifting of subjects-appeared so woebegone. Seldom has the manic activity of industrial manufacture seemed so pointless. And the Nova Scotia landscapes and still lifes-beautiful, bleak, elegiac-reveal an artist at the height of his powers but hardly at peace with the world or himself." Flower Is. constitutes "a major new statement in still photography. [and] can serve as an eminently fitting apotheosis for stream-of-consciousness photography" (The Photobook, I.264). Designed by Kohei Sugiura with Atsushi Sato. With introduction by Frank. Illustrated with 81 full-page photographs. (Tokyo): (Yugensha), (1987). Folio (343x250mm), original pictorial gray silk, original slipcase with mounted photographic reproduction; in the original shipping box. A fine copy.
Seller: Manhattan Rare Book Company, ABAA, ILAB, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Frank, Robert. Flower Is.. Yugensha, Tokyo, 1987.
Price: US$12500.00 + shipping
Description: Limited first edition, one of 500 unnumbered copies, with 81 finely screened full-page halftones. Folio, original gray cloth, cloth covered slipcase with halftone print affixed to the cover; original shipping box. In fine condition. Presentation copy, inscribed by Robert Frank. Flower Is can be regarded as "an eminently fitting apotheosis for stream-of-consciousness photography It is primarily a memorial volume to Franks daughter, who was killed in an airplane crash in 1974 The whole tenor of the book is forlorn, which may be the adjective that best describes Franks work as a whole It reveals an artist at the height of his powers but hardly at peace with the world or himself" (Parr & Badger).
Seller: Raptis Rare Books, Palm Beach, FL, U.S.A.