This little collection of some 50 vintage amateur photographs is a true gem
“You know, I don’t know how one can walk by a tree and not be happy at the sight of it?” writes Fyodor Dostoyevsky in The Idiot. Perhaps this sentence might explain the subject of women in trees that was so popular between the 1920s and ‘50s and has until now never before been assembled in a book. The enthusiastic collector Jochen Raiss discovered this motif during his flea market excursions. These photographs feature young women at dizzying heights who, at times, smile into the camera as if they were in love. The publication assembles the finds from this charming genre that Raiss compiled over a period of 25 years. Whether the women are cheerfully dangling their legs, casually nestling in the branch forks or athletically climbing to the treetop, each picture has its own story to tell.
Featured image is reproduced from 'Women in Trees.'
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Hyperallergic
Thomas Voon
It all began at a flea market in Frankfurt, when photo collector Jochen Raib came across a picture of a woman wearing a summer dress and high heels. While she looked ready for a Sunday stroll, her delicate footwear was odd for what her photographer caught her in the midst of doing: climbing a tree….he has since amassed 91 such photographs, now collected in an endearing photo book simply titled Women in Trees
The Telegraph
Lucy Davies
The very best [photographs] are those where the knowledge that she is doing something mischievous is written all over the climber’s face. She is giddy with it. Who knows what became of these women? But I like to think that, even if they were fettered by propriety every other day of their lives, just this once, they felt free.
The Paris Review
Idra Novey
...all these women, nearly a century ago, sitting in trees like the boys they never were are riveting.
Women in Trees, a lovely little collection of some 50 vintage amateur photographs of, well, women in trees, is a true gem. Charming, endearing, and full of life, this diminutive volume provides a happy glimpse into forgotten moments from the past. What exactly these moments are is not always easy to determine, but the sincerity with which the women pose in their trees makes the activity feel like the most natural theme in the world. continue to blog
How we ❤️ the impeccably titled 2016 bestseller Women in Trees—and its equally well-titled 2018 follow-up volume, More Women in Trees. Sized just a bit smaller than 5x7 postcards, and a weighing in at 112 pages each, these quirky little books are exactly what they say they are, and exactly what they need to be: concise and focused collections of vintage, black-and-white flea market photographs of sassy, dreamy, sexy and smily young women posing privately for some long-forgotten photographers. These are books that will make anyone smile, rightfully reviewed in AnOther, Hyperallergic and The Huffington Post, among others. continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 4.75 x 6.75 in. / 112 pgs / 55 b&w. LIST PRICE: U.S. $25.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $34.5 ISBN: 9783775741675 PUBLISHER: Hatje Cantz AVAILABLE: 9/27/2016 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of print AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: NA LA
Published by Hatje Cantz. Edited with text by Jochen Raiss.
This little collection of some 50 vintage amateur photographs is a true gem
“You know, I don’t know how one can walk by a tree and not be happy at the sight of it?” writes Fyodor Dostoyevsky in The Idiot. Perhaps this sentence might explain the subject of women in trees that was so popular between the 1920s and ‘50s and has until now never before been assembled in a book. The enthusiastic collector Jochen Raiss discovered this motif during his flea market excursions. These photographs feature young women at dizzying heights who, at times, smile into the camera as if they were in love. The publication assembles the finds from this charming genre that Raiss compiled over a period of 25 years. Whether the women are cheerfully dangling their legs, casually nestling in the branch forks or athletically climbing to the treetop, each picture has its own story to tell.
