Charlotte Perriand and Photography: A Wide-Angle Eye

In 1927, when 24-year-old Charlotte Perriand (1903–1999) walked into Le Corbusier's studio and asked him to hire her as a furniture designer, he responded, "We don't embroider cushions here." After seeing her remarkable designs, however, Le Corbusier enjoyed a long collaboration with Perriand, who would go on to work as an architect, town planner, and political activist. This revelatory book is the first to show Perriand's photography, an important tool in her creative process and intellectual development, and a reflection of her political views. Made from the late 1920s through 1941, these striking images, many previously unpublished, testify to the collaborative spirit of the avant-garde movement, in which painters, architects, and photographers worked together to achieve creative breakthroughs.