Griffiths, Philip Jones | Vietnam Inc., inscribed to Lee Jones, Magnum's New York Bureau Chief - photo 1
Griffiths, Philip Jones | Vietnam Inc., inscribed to Lee Jones, Magnum's New York Bureau Chief - photo 2
Griffiths, Philip Jones | Vietnam Inc., inscribed to Lee Jones, Magnum's New York Bureau Chief - photo 3
Griffiths, Philip Jones | Vietnam Inc., inscribed to Lee Jones, Magnum's New York Bureau Chief - photo 4

Griffiths, Philip Jones | Vietnam Inc., inscribed to Lee Jones, Magnum's New York Bureau Chief

Lot 82
08.12.2023 12:00UTC -05:00
Classic
Starting price
$ 3 000
AuctioneerSotheby´s
Event locationUSA, New York
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 1111117
Lot 82 | Griffiths, Philip Jones | Vietnam Inc., inscribed to Lee Jones, Magnum's New York Bureau Chief
Estimate value
$ 3 000 – 5 000
Griffiths, Philip Jones
Vietnam Inc. New York and London: The Macmillan Company and Collier-Macmillan, 1971

4to. 266 black and white photographic illustrations. Original black cloth, spine lettered in silver; in the iconic original photo-illustrated dust-jacket; few spots of minor rubbing, but a fine, crisp copy. Cloth folding box.

An important association copy of the first edition, inscribed by Jones Griffiths to Magnum's New York Bureau Chief: "To Lee from Philip with sincere thanks." Lee Jones was responsible for signing Jones Griffiths to cover the Vietnam War for Magnum, the collective of photo-journalists that counted Robert Capa as one of its founders. "In the finest book to come out of the Vietnam War, Jones Griffiths made his voice heard loud and clear, producing a great work of humanist documentary photography" (The Photobook).

While the work is an astounding document of colonial conflict, the text and images are explicit in a view that would only be widely accepted later, namely that the war was one of immense folly by Washington politicians, who had no real understanding of Vietnam or its people. Jones Griffiths' emphasis on the impact on the Vietnamese civilians, rather than the soldiers in battle, was an overtly political stance and an unusual one that elevates the work from objective photodocumentary.

The hard cover issue is much more uncommon than than the softcover and the exact limitation in the present format is unknown. Some have speculated it was produced to present to members of Congress (perhaps providing them a different view than the network coverage on the evening news). Or perhaps more likely these hardbound copies were simply for the author, as so few have been on the market.
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