Guest Editor Wes Gordon
Wes Gordon is a New York City based designer and finalist for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Award. Quoted by Harper's Bazaar as part of "New York's new guard", Gordon is a leader of the next generation of fashion's top designers. His interest in architecture and using the body to explore shape and form is evident both in his own design as well as his selection for this edition, which includes pieces by some of his favorite artists and places of inspiration.
Featuring artist František Drtikol on the cover.
Bill Brandt
Bill Brandt is an internationally recognized British photographer. He was born on May 2, 1904, in Hamburg, Germany. After World War I, Brandt contracted tuberculosis and was treated in Vienna. Once cured, he was taken under the wing of the socialite Eugenie Schwarzwald, and while spending time at Schwarzwald's residence, Brandt took his first important photograph, a portrait of the poet Ezra Pound. Pound then introduced Brandt to Man Ray, and Brandt would go on to assist Man Ray in his studio in Paris from 1929-30. Brandt settled in London in 1932 and began taking photographs of the industrial, middle, and working classes. During World War II, Brandt documented the night air raids and underground shelters in London for the British Home Office. After the war, he worked as a freelance photographer in London and has had many solo exhibitions across the United States and Europe, including a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and at the Hayward Gallery in London. Brandt is also known for his dynamic and intense nude photography. He passed away in 1983.
Bill Brandt is featured in Edition: Guest Editor, Wes Gordon
Bruce Weber
Bruce Weber was born in Greensburg, Pennsylvania in 1946. Originally studying theatre and filmmaking, Weber was introduced to Lisette Model and began to study with her at the New School in the 1960s. He participated in his first group show in 1973 and had his first solo exhibition at Razor Gallery in New York City a year later. Weber began photographing ads and commercials for Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein, in the late 1970s. His work has appeared in numerous publications, such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, GQ, and Interview, and it is in the permanent collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in Paris. Over 15 books of Weber's work have been published, including Roberto Bolle: An Athlete In Tights, Branded Youth and Other Stories, and A House is Not a Home. His work in A House is Not a Home illustrates how "home" comes from the life within, regardless of how grand the structure.
Bruce Weber is featured in Edition: Guest Editor, Wes Gordon
Candida Höfer
Candida Höfer, born in 1944 in Eberswalde, Germany, is a photographer famous for her ability to capture the silent and solemn beauty of interior spaces. She studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, beginning her studies in Film with Ole John and then Photography under Bernd and Hilla Becher. Her first solo show was in Düsseldorf in 1975, and she has continued to show internationally since then. She participated in documenta 11, Kassel in 2002, and she represented Germany in the Venice Biennale in 2003. She currently lives and works in Cologne. Höfer was commissioned to photograph the interiors of public buildings in Naples and has documented various locations across Weimar.
www.sonnabendgallery.com/index.php?v=artist&id=10&col=1
Candida Höfer is featured in Edition: Guest Editor, Wes Gordon
David Bailey
David Bailey is a well known British photographer. He was born in East End, London in January 1938. Bailey began working as an assistant for the photographer John French and then accepted a position at British Vogue in 1960. He became increasingly well known for capturing the "Swinging London" of the 1960s. Bailey photographed, among many other cultural icons, Jean Shrimpton, Andy Warhol, the Kray Twins, Mick Jagger, The Beatles, Jane Birkin, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Twiggy, Grace Coddington, Penelope Tree, and Catherine Deneuve. Many books of his photographs have been published over the years. He currently resides in London.
David Bailey is featured in Edition: Guest Editor, Wes Gordon
František Drtikol
František Drtikol was born in Příbram, in the area that is now the Czech Republic, on March 3, 1883. Drtikol is known for his work as a photographer and invention of a half-tone photolithographic process. He was exceptionally creative in his approach towards lighting, and the relationship between light and shade played an important role in his photographic work. His most famous work is characterized by the juxtaposition of the nude female figure with large, geometric objects. Drtikol referred to his work as "Photopurism, a sort of abstract photography". In 1935, Drtikol gave up photography in favor of painting and the study of Oriental philosophy, occultism, and theosophy. He passed the final years of his life in retirement and philosophical meditation, until his death on January 13, 1961, in Prague.
www.artbook.com/9783775726009.html
František Drtikol is featured in Edition: Guest Editor, Wes Gordon
Helmut Newton
Helmut Newton, one of the world's most influential modern photographers, was born in Berlin in 1920. He fled Germany in 1938, moved to Australia in 1940, and married June Brunell (a.k.a. Alice Springs). After working as a fashion photographer for British Vogue, French Vogue, French Elle, and Australian Vogue, Newton began to achieve international fame in the 1970s. He became known for his bold lighting, controversial scenarios, and striking compositions of streets and interiors rather than studio shots. His first volume of photographs, White Women, was published in 1976. In 1990, he was awarded the Grand Prix national de la photography; in 1992 he was presented with Das Grosse Verdienstkreuz for his contribution to German culture and appointed Officier des Arts, Lettres et Sciences by the Princess of Monaco. In 1996, the French Misinster of Culture appointed him Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In honor of his 80th birthday, the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin held a major retrospective of Newton's work. Newton passed away in Los Angeles in 2004, at the age of 83.
Helmut Newton is featured in Edition: Guest Editor, Wes Gordon
Jean-Michel Frank
Jean-Michel Frank was born in Paris on February 28, 1895. He began to study law in 1911. During World War I, his family was struck by tragedy; both of his older brothers died, and his father committed suicide. Frank entered the business of interior design in 1921, taking on projects for Pierre Drieu La Rochelle and Charles Peignot. In 1930, he became the artistic director of Chanaux & Company, providing interiors for clients in Europe and the United States. His work for and relationship with Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles propelled him into the realm of the Parisian elite. World War II lead to the closure of Chanaux & Company, and Frank fled France for Argentina and then then traveled to New York. He committed suicide there on March 8, 1941. Frank's legacy lives on, influencing future generations; the term "le style Frank" refers to the combination of simple forms, luxurious materials, and understated modernity.
www.stoutbooks.com/cgi-bin/stoutbooks.cgi/75981
Jean-Michel Frank is featured in Edition: Guest Editor, Wes Gordon
Josef Sudek
Josef Sudek was born on March 17, 1896, in Kolín, Bohemia. He originally apprenticed as a bookbinder; however, he lost an arm during World War I and was unable to pursue this career path. He soon picked up the skill of photography and earned his living with this art. Some of his more famous series include interiors of St. Vitus Cathedral, Glass Labyrinths, Memories, and Autumn in Stromovka Park. The first book of his work was published in Prague in 1956. Sudek passed away in Prague on September 15, 1976.
Josef Sudek is featured in Edition: Guest Editor, Wes Gordon
Karen Knorr
Photographer Karen Knorr was born in Frankfurt, Germany and raised in San Jan, Puerto Rico in the 1960s. She was educated in Paris and London and has resided in England since the 1970s. She is currently Professor of Photography at the University for the Creative Arts in Farnham, Surrey. She is well known for her series Gentlemen (1981-83), which was photographed in Saint James's clubs in London and delves into the patriarchal conservative values of Britain during the Falklands war. Her work continued to evolve into a playful critique and dialogue regarding contemporary documentary photography. Knorr began to incorporate staged events and other artificial elements into her photographs of architectural interiors, such as Chiswick House and Osterley park. This line of thinking continues in her use of digital collage, placing animals, objects, and actors in museums and architectural sites. By photographing animals in human and intellectual spaces, Knorr's Fables series (2004-2008) draws attention to the unbridged gap between nature and culture. After visiting Rajasthan, India in 2008, Knorr began to focus on the cultural sites in the area. This new interest is evident in her latest series, India Song (2008-12), which places animals in traditional male and female spaces.
Karen Knorr is featured in Edition: Guest Editor, Wes Gordon
Koto Bolofo
Koto Bolofo was born in Lesotho, South Africa in 1959 and raised in Great Britain. He currently lives in Vendée, France. He has photographed and made short films for many magazines, such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, and GQ. Bolofo has also created advertising campaigns for Hermès, Louis Vuitton, and Dom Pérignon. Books of his photography include Venus, Vroom! Vroom!, Grande Complication, La Maison, Lord Snowdon, Dreams, I Spy with My Little Eye, and Something beginning with S. For his work in La Maison, Bolofo gained unlimited access to the workshop of Hermès. Each of the eleven volumes is dedicated to a separate element Bolofo discovered during his seven years inside the Hermès headquarters.
www.steidlville.com/artists/446-Koto-Bolofo.html
Koto Bolofo is featured in Edition: Guest Editor, Wes Gordon
Patrick Faigenbaum
Patrick Faigenbaum is a Parisian portraitist photographer, born in Paris in 1954. He studied painting and drawing from 1968 until 1973, when he began exploring the medium of photography. As a young photographer, Faigenbaum was influenced by the work of Richard Avedon, W. Eugene Smith, and Bill Brandt. During a visit with Brandt in 1976, Faigenbaum was advised to photograph his subjects in their natural environment instead of a stark studio space. He began by taking portraits of his friends and family and eventually evolved beyond the familiar Parisian middle-class to the Italian aristocracy. His portraiture during this period typically features frontal figures that are carefully arranged to emphasize the relationship between them and their surroundings. Faigenbaum's portraiture of Italian aristocratic families references the age-old tradition of portraiture in painting. It acknowledges the history of these families and their everyday surroundings. More recently, Faigenbaum has turned towards a more documentary style and still lifes.
Patrick Faigenbaum is featured in Edition: Guest Editor, Wes Gordon
Philip-Lorca diCorcia
Philip-Lorca diCorcia is an American photographer, born in 1951, in Hartford, Connecticut. He studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and went on to receive his MFA in Photography from Yale University in 1979. DiCorcia is well known for creating images that balance between documentary and theatrically-staged photography. Photography becomes a fictive medium that diCorcia infuses with the uncanny, asking viewers to question the reality between fact and fiction. DiCorcia became well known for his "Hustlers" series of male prostitutes in Los Angeles during the early 1990s. He was included in the 1997 Whitney Museum of American Art's Biennale. His 2004 series of pole dancers, "Lucky Thirteen" resulted in four solo exhibitions. DiCorcia is also a highly sought after editorial photographer and has created numerous iconic shoots for W magazine. He currently resides in New York and is the Senior Photography Critic at Yale University.
www.davidzwirner.com/artists/philip-lorca-dicorcia/
Philip-Lorca diCorcia is featured in Edition: Guest Editor, Wes Gordon and Edition: Best of the Met
Robert Mapplethorpe
Robert Mapplethorpe is known as one of the most important and provocative photographers of the 20th century. Mapplethorpe was born in 1946 in Floral Park, Queens, and he enrolled at Pratt Institute in 1963 to study drawing, painting, and sculpture. In 1970, he began working with Polaroid cameras and had his first solo exhibition of Polaroids in 1973 at the Light Gallery in New York City. Mapplethorpe is known for his documentation of the S & M scene in New York, stylized nude portraits, studio portraits, and still lifes of flowers. In 1986, Mapplethorpe was diagnosed with AIDS but continued to work creatively. The Whitney Museum of American Art held his first major American museum retrospective in 1988, and Mapplethorpe passed away one year later. The photographs included in Mapplethorpe's Some Women explore ideals and realities of female beauty.
Robert Mapplethorpe is featured in Edition: Guest Editor, Wes Gordon
Sir Cecil Beaton
Sir Cecil Beaton was born on January 14, 1904, in Hampstead, England. At the age of eleven, he received his first camera and began to learn photography with the help of his sister's nurse, Ninnie. He attended St. John's College, Cambridge University during the 1920s but left without obtaining a degree. Beaton worked as an illustrator and photographer for Vogue and Vanity Fair magazines. He is also well known for his photographs of high-society, British Royalty, and Hollywood icons. After World War II, Beaton began working in theatre and film, designing costumes, sets, and lighting. He won Academy Awards for his costume design for Gigi and My Fair Lady. He also won four Tony Awards. In 1972, he was knighted, and he passed away in 1980.
www.assouline.com/9782759404728.html
Sir Cecil Beaton is featured in Edition: Guest Editor, Wes Gordon
CECIL BEATON: THE NEW YORK YEARS features sketches, costumes, set designs, letters, photographs, and drawings that document Beaton's involvement in the New York art scene from the 1930s to 1960s. It was written by Donald Albrecht, the Museum of the City of New York's curator of architecture and design and published by Skira Rizzoli in October 2011.
Sir Cecil Beaton is featured in Edition: Rizzoli: New York
