First edition, first printing. Hardcover. Silver paper-covered boards with tipped-in plate and title stamped in orange and black on cover; no dust jacket as issued. Photographs by Rineke Dijkstra. Essay (in German and Englich) by Birgid Uccia. Includes a list of plates, a biography, exhibition history, bibliography and awards. Cited in Martin Parr and Gerry Badger, “The Photobook” A history, Volume II.
From Barr and Badger: “When they first appeared in the 1990s, the portraits by Rineke Dijkstra caused more of a stir than any comparable imagery since Diana Arbus. Her first collection in particular, published as “Beaches” in this important photobook, resonated with her audience in a number of ways. The images related to the work of both Arbus and August Sander, two impeccable precedents, yet displayed an authoritative voice of their own. Their subject matters, adolescents in bathing suits, was edgy, but was handled by Dijkstra with sensitivity. Furthermore, the rigor of het presentation demonstrated an intellectual clarity and ambition that was enough to announce a major new voice in portraiture, possible the trickiest of photographic genres to bring off successfully”.