Quote:
Originally Posted by hkr 
Is there a parallel to be found in written works - is the first edition of a book or novel more "important" than subsequent reprints?
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The question of originality vs. authenticity with the written word is a terribly slippery slope. The biggest deal with 1st editions is very much like the idea of the #1 in a limited edition of prints. It in theory is closest to the author's intent, and it is the first representation of that intent. I think more tellingly, the first edition thing with books is just as much a marketing thing as editioning prints.
A famous example that gives the lie to this would be Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass". He kept tinkering with the content, adding and removing poems, and editing individual poems, as he went along. So there is no one definitive edition. Fortunately or unfortunately, that doesn't happen with photographs, or at least not nearly to the same degree.