John Fass: Book Arts and Photography

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  • Home: About this Site

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  • Frequently Asked Questions

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  • Born & Raised in Lititz, PA

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  • Part One:
    Photography by John Fass:

    John's First Photographs

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  • New York City: Urban Precisionism
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  • John's Apartment at the Bronx YMCA
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  • More 1940s New York City
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  • 1940s New York Sidewalk Art
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  • New York City at Night
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  • Pennsylvania Dutch Farms
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  • Lancaster County Covered Bridges
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  • The Hammer Creek near Lititz
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  • Hammer Creek Turtles
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  • Ephrata Cloister: Lancaster County
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  • Portraits of Esther and Clarence
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  • Alone in a Landscape
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  • Trees and Leaves
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  • John Photographs the West
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  • Light and Shadow
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  • Line and Shape
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  • Texture
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  • Botanical
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  • Abstract Expressionism
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  • John's Printing Presses
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  • John's Favorite Printed Pages
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  • Valenti and Maxine Angelo
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  • More Friends of John Fass
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  • Part Two:
    John's Printing & Publishing:

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  • John's Mentor: Bruce Rogers
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  • John's Bruce Rogers Scrapbook
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  • Printing for Random House (1)
  • Rockwell Kent
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  • Elmer Adler / Pynson Printers
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  • Frederic & Bertha Goudy
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  • George W. Jones
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  • John Makes Mini Printing Presses
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  • John's Book-Design Awards
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  • John's Hammer Creek Press (1)
  • Bookplates by John Fass
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  • 1929: John Fass does Europe
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  • Christmas Cards by John Fass
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  • John's Harbor Press
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  • John Makes Marble Paper
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  • More Book Design Sketches
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  • Louis How
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  • John's Commercial Printing
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  • Typophiles and Bibliophiles
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 Pennsylvania Dutch Barns: 1940s & 50s

Photography by John Fass

 

Barn10dusted

Whitebarndusted

 

John Fass was a country boy with an urban aesthetic. Although he lived in New York City, he maintained close bonds with his relatives in Lancaster County, PA, where he owned the house previously owned by his parents in Lititz.

John celebrated his rural Pennsylvania Dutch heritage in both his photography and books arts. In the 1950s he created two booklets about hex signs on barns. He printed the books in miniscule editions in his room at the Bronx YMCA. The titles are Barn Signs of the Pennsylvania Dutch Usually called "Hex Signs" (1953, edition of 4 copies) and Designs of the Pennsylvania Dutch Usually Called Hex Signs (1954, edition of 6 copies). The books consist of hex sign decals "collected and arranged by the Hammer Creek Press."

Previously, in the 1940s, John created a series of photographs of Pennsylvania Dutch barns, shot with Kodachrome slide film. These barns stand tall in their fields, in dramatic counterpoint to the Manhattan skyscrapers John photographed during this same time.

 

RedBarndusted 

Winterbarn

 

Windmill 

Orchardgrass 

Barn2 

Untitled  

Barn5 

Barn12 

Shed 
 Barn3

Corn2

 

Barn8

 

YellowBarn

 

Popcorn 

CornWire 

Steinman 

Barn1

Barn9

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