[PHOTOGRAPHS] [LANDES]. ARNAUDIN, Félix. Au temps des échass - Lot 63

[PHOTOGRAPHS] [LANDES]. ARNAUDIN, Félix. Au temps des échasses. A photographic monument dedicated to the Landes region at the end of the 19th century. sl., sn., 1928. In-4 oblong, (340x260mm), paperback in hardback folder and slipcase; half eggplant chagrin folder with corners, publisher's slipcase. [131ff.] including 100 plates hors texte printed in bistre and sometimes green ink phototypesetting, including 99 photographs under captioned serpents and a frontispiece reproduction of a portrait of an old woman. Some foxing, spotting, case partly unstained. One of 310 numbered copies of this unique edition, produced by subscription. Presentation taken from the preface: "It was during one of his peregrinations that Félix Arnaudin, caught up in the fascination of his native land, conceived the project of building a monument to perpetuate its memory. [...] Arnaudin wanted to fix his features on canvas, but he lacked the gifts of a painter... Alone, with no master and no manual, he resolved to initiate himself into the secrets of photographic art, then in its infancy. [...] Around 1870, he set to work." The Landes stilt-walkers, who give their name to this work, were mainly shepherds using stilts to watch over flocks of sheep, walk quickly over wet terrain, and protect their feet from the cold and stinging gorse. Félix Arnaudin (1844-1921) was the first to document the ethnography of the native Haute-Lande. He was a linguist, folklorist, historian, ethnologist, musicologist, draughtsman, photographer and writer. He distinguished himself in the study of popular traditions in the Landes de Gascogne region, which was undergoing rapid economic and social change at the time. His work focused on collecting Gascon proverbs, tales and songs, and photographing Landes landscapes, habitats, shepherds and farmers. He devoted his life to saving this heritage from oblivion. He is considered one of the pioneers of photography in France.