A Painter’s Camera and a portrait Signed by John Piper first edition 1987

London: The Tate Gallery, 1987  
 
Oblong 4to., oat-coloured cloth, lettered in black to spine; the white dust wrapper, printed in black, showing the photograph ‘Harvest Festival’ (p. 100); containing 119 black and white photographs by Piper; lightly spotted to fore-edge and top edge; upper corners bumped; thin strip of sunning to the lower edge; else a very good copy, the jacket just a little spotted and sunned; lightly creased to the head of folds and one or two small nicks to head of spine; also very good. 
 
[together with] 
 
Black and white bromide photographic Print of John Piper by George Newson (24 x 30.5cm approx); slightly creased, one small nick (1cm long) to left-hand edge. Signed by Piper and Newson in black ink (Newson’s over previous red signature). 
 
First edition, signed by Piper to the title page. Additionally inscribed to the photographer “George Newson/ 11 Dec. ‘87/ (a gift from J. Piper).  
 
The painter and graphic artist John Piper is perhaps best known today for his official war paintings, which depicted bomb-damaged churches and other landmarks. He was also, however, a creative and versatile photographer, producing almost 5000 examples over the course of his lifetime, many of which are now deposited at the Tate Gallery Archive. Piper’s photography career began in the 1930s in collaborations with John Nash, and continued into the 1940s when he was commissioned by Bejteman to write the Shell Guide to Oxfordshire. He henceforth began to focus on buildings within landscapes, and contribute his photographs to the Architectural Review. 
 
George Newson was an English composer and pianist. A friend and colleague of Delia Derbyshire, he also produced a tape entitled Silent Spring, inspired by Rachel Carson's book of the same name and utilising birdsong recorded at London Zoo. Premiering at the Queen Elizabeth Hall Redcliffe Concert on 15 January 1968, it was one of the earliest concerts of electronic music by a British composer. Newson also used his contacts to photograph a number of his contemporaries, among them musicians, composers and artists including David Bedford, Richard Rodney Bennett and Priaulx Rainier.
 
An interesting association copy.