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RICHIE, Robert Yarnall.
Photographic album prepared for special presentation by the photographer
Publisher: Richie Film Productions for ARAMCO, 1945
Stock code: 63992
Price: £17,500 Currency Conversion
Presentation album of exhibition-quality photographs compiled by the photographer and bound for him in lavish morocco and gilt. An exceptional album of images made by the mid-century modernist photographer who by 1938 was regarded as "one of the foremost industrial photographers in the world" and whose reputation was solidified during the war as one of the world's finest aerial reconnaissance photographers. After the war he was commissioned to make a motion picture documentary for Arabian American Oil Company (now Saudi Aramco); the resulting film, Desert Venture, premiered in New York in October 1947. These images of the burgeoning oil industry in Saudi Arabia document an important period after the initial success drilling at Dammam and during the development of the refinery at Ras Tanura. Richie's individual prints do surface at auction but there is no record of such a portfolio of work ever having appeared in commerce. His work on oil production is not only his most highly regarded but was Richie's personal favourite subject: in his own words, "There's drama in steel, but there's more romance in oil [....] oil has so many different angles to it as an industry. Oil really has a story to tell in pictures."
Folio. 30 original photographic prints each 340 × 270 mm in size, guard mounted and bound for presentation in original full green morocco, gilt map of Saudi Arabia to upper board. Green silk endpapers, photographer's stamp in gilt to verso of upper board. Some slight marks to morocco and creases to spine, internally near fine.
