Charlotte Perriand | Photography: A Wide-Angle Eye

Charlotte Perriand (1903–1999) was one of the most innovative furniture and interior designers of the 20th century, widely known for the tubular steel chairs she designed in collaboration with Le Corbusier. Her career spanned some 75 years, with work in her native France and across Africa, South America, Asia and Europe. In recent years, hundreds of unpublished photographic negatives were discovered in her archive, revealing in earnest for the first time her side as a photographer.

In the late 1920s, Perriand began her career as an architect, designer, urban planner and political activist, and from 1927 she took up photography. This practice played an extremely important role in her creativity and in the formation of her thinking at the dawn of modernism. Her photographic activity ended in 1941, when the Second World War broke out during her stay in Japan.

For Perriand, photography was a "machine" for reflection, documentation and evoking emotion, and at the same time a means of political engagement. Her photographic works embody the themes and concerns explored by modern art at the time, showing that they were part of a pioneering movement symbolising the collaborative spirit of architects, painters and photographers.

There is a tear of about 2.6 cm at the lower left of the cover.

Publisher: 5 Continents
Publication year: 2011
Pages: 376
Dimensions: 292 × 246 mm

Charlotte Perriand / Photography / Design History