Sergio Larrain - Tapa dura

Having been a self-proclaimed Sergio Larrain junkie for long while, I heard about and waited patiently for this book's release date. I wondered if there would be images that haven't been published before. I didn't realize that 1/2 the book would be of images new to me - and the best part is, much of it is even better than the work I had known.--Jeffrey Ladd"photo-eye" (08/28/2013)

...for the decade or so that he was in the world and regularly taking pictures, his work, as amply illustrated in 'Sergio Larrain' edited by Agnes Sire, was a constant source of wonder.--Luc Sante"The New York Times Book Review" (12/08/2013)

A book full of beautiful, often bravely experimental street images, it should go some way towards elevating the reclusive photographer into the canon of 20th-century greats.--Sean O'Hagan"The Guardian" (12/07/2013)

Sergio Larrain grew up in Chile, but left at age eighteen to study at the University of California, Berkeley. Upon his return he began taking photographs in the streets of Santiago and Valparaiso; the early purchase of two images by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, reassured him in his chosen profession. Impressed by Henri Cartier-Bresson's photographs, Larrain presented the photographer his work on los abandonados (street children in Santiago) during a trip to Europe. Cartier-Bresson then invited Larrain to join Magnum in 1960; around this time he also began what would become a legendary project on Valparaiso with a text by poet Pablo Neruda. Unsure if he was suited to working for the press, Larrain retreated to the Chilean countryside and dedicated himself to yoga, meditation, and drawing until his death in February 2012.

After completing a doctorate in philosophy and aesthetics, Agnes Sire worked at the Alexandre Iolas gallery in Paris before joining the team at Magnum Photos as artistic director. Co-author of several collective books at Magnum, she has also curated many exhibitions. She lectured at the Universite Paris-I Sorbonne for two years. In 2004, she became director of the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson where she is also in charge of exhibitions and catalogue publication, including Henri Cartier-Bresson's Scrapbook and Harry Callahan's Variations. She was also involved in the publication of Sergio Larrain's Valparaiso and Londres (London) and was associate curator of the exhibition held at IVAM-Centre Julio Gonzalez in Valencia.

Gonzalo Leiva Quijada is professor of the history of civilization at EHESS (Ecole des hautes etudes en sciences sociales) in Paris and lectures in philosophy and aesthetics at the Instituto de Estetica, Pontifi cia Universidad Catolica de Chile, in Santiago. He has published many works on photography and the art of Latin America, including Pinturas con historia (2008), Multitudes en sombras: AFI (2008), Horizontes y abismos, Obra visual de Virginia Huneeus (2011), Sergio Larrain, Biografi a, estetica, fotografia (2012).