Kern Noir — Photographs by Richard Kern

Catalogue note

Kern's 2002 Charta survey of black-and-white photographs from across his career bridges his late-1970s/1980s Lower East Side underground-film milieu and his later published photography. An important printed articulation of photography, erotic representation, voyeurism and New York post-punk visual culture. Original first-edition status supports publication-history value; sealed survival documents this specimen's physical integrity, not proven print scarcity.

Credit / attribution note: Front physically prints 'KERN Noir / Photographs by Richard Kern' and 'CHARTA'; back physically prints 'Texts by Geoff Nicholson, Sabina Spada', '176 pages; 150 illustrations in black and white', 'Printed in Italy', ISBN 88-8158-378-X and €39. The depicted cover/back models are not identified; no physical author signature is visible. A bookseller attributes book design to Gabriele Nason and Daniela Meda, but publisher/colophon corroboration unavailable through original seal, so no confirmed creator link or authority proposed.

Edition / bibliographic note: First Charta edition dated 2002 in photographer's own CV and the D.A.P. Fall 2002 trade catalogue. The present ISBN 88-8158-378-X corresponds to that original edition. Owner expressly identifies this copy as first edition and factory sealed, with shrink-wrap surviving in photos. First impression cannot be directly established without opening the book, and no reliable number/count of later reprintings was found; a secondary AbeBooks 2010 date attached to this ISBN is not proof of a separate reprint.

Preserved discrepancies / uncertainties: Pagination: original back cover states 176 pages and 150 black-and-white illustrations; contemporaneous US distributor D.A.P. says 180 pages / illustrated throughout. Preserve both. A sales platform attaches a generic 2010 publication year to the same ISBN while original D.A.P. and Kern's CV consistently date original publication to 2002; 2010 reprint hypothesis unverified, not adopted. Internals, title/colophon and printer's number line unseen by preservation decision.

Research status: Core 2002 publication and ISBN independently verified via original distributor D.A.P., artist's own CV, contemporaneous 2002 interview and Charta-specific bibliographic specialist source. First-edition attribution supported; first impression, complete internal collation and issue/print-run history remain unknown because sealed. Owner-supplied condition and image views limited to front/back.