MOLLINO, Carlo. Polaroids.

(Sante Fe, NM): Arena Editions, 2002. First edition. Hardcover. 27.5cm by 22.3cm. 287 pages. Mollino was renowned both for his sleek, ultramodern furniture design and architecture and for his refined hedonism; he was a drug addict who raced cars and flew his own plane. Sometime around 1960, Mollino began to seek out women, mostly prostitutes, in his native Turin, bringing them to his villa for late-night modeling sessions, where they posed for Polaroid photographs, against backgrounds that he designed. The pictures remained a secret between Mollino and his subjects until aftr his death in 1973, when some two thousand were found. This lavish selection of several hundred Polaroids preserves the essential mystery of a project both decadent and hermetic. (The New Yorker) Though clearly the product of a deep obsession, the photographs are deliberately impersonal, each baroque detail an invitation for the viewer to imagine Mollino’s encounters with the women. A near fine copy in boards with polaroid mounted to front cover, without dust jacket as issued.