Early Recordings presents the first comprehensive look to date at work by the conceptually driven German artist Marco Breuer (born 1966). Boldly experimental, Breuer uses an extensive and continually evolving range of processes to extract abstract and visually compelling images from photographic paper.

Whether it involves placing burning coals on the photographic paper or repeatedly slicing into it or sanding away at the emulsion until holes appear, Breuer's work eviscerates the usual expectations of the cameraless image. The end results are exquisitely gorgeous and minimalist, and this volume reproduces them with attention to every slice, abrasion, and color shift. The images function as "recordings" of the artist's actions—only the trace of impact and expended energy remain. Breuer's work has garnered significant critical acclaim and, as Vince Aletti describes it, has “the intelligence and wit of the mid-century modernist avant-garde and the anything-goes audacity of photography's earliest innovators.“