Vanity Fair: The Portraits: A Century of Iconic Images by Graydon Carter, David Friend, Christopher Hitchens (Introduction)

From Barnes & Noble

Vanity Fair photographs have been drawing attention and generating controversy ever since Condé Nast first opened the New York monthly in 1913. The fortunes of the magazine itself rose and fell, but it has always been a favorite venue for elite photographers; over the years, the roster has included Edward Steichen, Alfred Stieglitz, Cecil Beaton, Annie Leibovitz, Mario Testino, Herb Ritts, Helmut Newton, and Man Ray. Vanity Fair Portraits gathers 95 years of exquisite, cutting-edge studio shots in a single elegant coffee-table pictorial.

From the Publisher

Vanity Fair: The Portraits brings together 300 iconic portraits from Vanity Fair’s 95-year history in a remarkable book that captures the image of modern fame—the magical thing that happens when individual talent and beauty (and sometimes genius) is caught in the spotlight of popular curiosity and passion. The photographers—from Edward Steichen and Cecil Beaton to Annie Leibovitz and Mario Testino—are a glittering and celebrated group themselves. Their portraits have become the iconic likenesses of the best-known figures from the worlds of art, film, music, sports, business, and politics.

From legends such as Pablo Picasso, Amelia Earhart, Cary Grant, and Katharine Hepburn to the stars, writers, athletes, style icons, and titans of business and politics of today, Vanity Fair: The Portraits offers an authoritative roster of talent and glamour in the 20th century.

The New York Times - Caroline Weber

Culled from the pages of Vanity Fair magazine by its editor, Graydon Carter, and his staff, and shot by many of the greatest photographers in the history of the medium, these pictures are engrossing less because of the people they portray than because of the breathtaking ingenuity with which each subject is captured…Whether taken by Baron de Meyer, Edward Steichen or Man Ray, or by latter-day geniuses like [Annie] Leibovitz, Helmut Newton or Herb Ritts, these pictures stand as some of the finest examples of photographic craft ever to appear in the mainstream press… Almost without exception, each of these portraits is a work of art. Taken together, they offer an irresistible visual record of a world where stars reign supreme, and where heart-stopping beauty is just a shutter-click away.

Publishers Weekly

Vanity Fair magazine has a reputation as one of the preeminent showcases for portraits in the world, and this book gathers together a good chunk of them in all their glossy, artificial splendor. There's almost as much celebrity behind the lens as in front of it: Edward Steichen, Herb Ritts, Mario Testino, David LaChapelle and, of course, Annie Leibovitz are all included, and the portraits themselves amount to a who's who of culture and politics, with the quality of the images justifying the inclusion of the occasional lesser-known figures. The photographs have been arranged to supply the reader with subtle (and not so subtle) visual and cultural frisson: what are we meant to think when Joseph Goebbels is juxtaposed with Richard Perle? In a face-off between Rob Lowe and Louise Brooks, who has the most glamorous jaw line? For posing questions such as this, and for the production values and sheer scale, not to mention introductory essays by Graydon Carter, Christopher Hitchens, Terence Pepper and David Friend, this is a book that will no doubt be adorning the coffee tables of the world's culture brokers for many years to come. (Sept.)

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