WILLIAM A. EWING

Edward Steichen (1879-1973) es uno de los fotógrafos más prolíficos, influyentes y polémicos del siglo XX. Esta es la primera exposición completa del trabajo realizado por Steichen para la industria de la moda y el glamour. Durante el periodo de entreguerras, este conocido artista, famoso como pintor y como fotografo a ambos lados del Atlantico desde 1900, revoluciono la fotografia de moda desde su puesto de jefe de fotografia de las influyentes y reconocidas publicaciones de Conde Nast Vogue y Vanity Fair. Tambien conocido como "el fotografo de retratos mas famoso del mundo", entre 1923 y 1937 Steichen produjo una obra que alcanza en su conjunto una brillantez fuera de lo comun, dedicando su excepcional talento y su prodigiosa energia a la puesta en escena y la exaltacion de la cultura contemporanea y sus mas destacados representantes del mundo de la politica, la literatura, el deporte, la danza, el teatro y sobre todo, la alta costura. Sus imagenes para las revistas de Conde Nast son algunas de las creaciones mas asombrosas de la fotografia del siglo XX.

Anuncio de la muerte del retrato convencional, nuevas maneras de retratar el rostro. El rostro como estudio de la individualidad humana. Provocadores retratos con un énfasis puesto en lo que está a la vista y no en lo oculto.. En una epoca en la que se nos bombardea con imagenes impecables de belleza juvenil, y en la que el rejuvenecimiento puede conseguirse mediante un tarro de crema o un bisturi, no es de extrañar que una nueva generacion de artistas y fotografos investiguen sobre nuevas tecnicas de retrato. Al explorar nuevas y atrevidas estrategias de presentacion, los artistas presentan al mundo rostros que son, a veces, enternecedores, y, otras aun, aterradores, pero que nunca dejan de ser fascinantes. A traves de una gran variedad de tecnicas, entre ellas la manipulacion mediante ordenador, el retoque, el fotomontaje, la apropiacion de imagenes y diversos metodos de velado. y de simulacion, los artistas presentan sus innovadores retratos. Al sustituir la claridad por lo borroso, lo instantaneo por el momento elastico y la realidad por la hiperrealidad, cuestionan la idea de una identidad fija, de la cara como reflejo del alma, de lo que constituye la belleza y de la fe en una absoluta verdad fotografica, creando asi retratos mas proximos a los del siglo XIX que a los del siglo XX.

Ernst Haas is unquestionably one of the best-known, most prolific and most published photographers of the twentieth-century. He is most associated with a vibrant colour photography which, for decades, was much in demand by the illustrated press. This colour work, published in the most influential magazines in Europe and America, also fed a constant stream of books, and these too enjoyed great popularity. But although his colour work earned him fame around the world, in recent decades it has often been derided by critics and curators as overly commercial, and too easily accessible or in the language of curators, not sufficiently serious. As a result, his reputation has suffered in comparison with a younger generation of colour photographers, notably Eggleston, Shore and Meyerowitz. Paradoxically, however, there was also a side of his work that was almost entirely hidden from view. Parallel to his commissioned work Haas constantly made images for his own interest, and these pictures show an entirely different aspect of Haass sensibility: they are far more edgy, loose, complex and ambiguous in short, far more radical than the work which earned him fame. Haas never printed these pictures in his lifetime, nor did he exhibit them, probably believing that they would not be understood or appreciated. Nonetheless, these works are of great complexity, and rival (and sometimes surpass) anything done at the time by his fellow photographers. This book is intended to correct the record. Ernst Haas was born in Vienna in 1921, and took up photography after the war. His early Austrian work on returning prisoners of war brought him to the attention of Life Magazine, but he courageously declined a job as staff photographer in order to keep his independence. At the invitation of Robert Capa, Haas joined Magnum in 1949, developing close associations with Capa, Bishof and Cartier-Bresson. He began experimenting with colour, and went on to become the premier colour photographer of the 1950s. In 1962 New Yorks Museum of Modern Art mounted its first solo exhibition of his colour photography. Haass books were legion, and one, The Creation (1971), sold 350.000 copies. Ernst Haas received the Hasselblad award in 1986, the year of his death.

This book represents 100 of the finest and most fascinating examples of body-centred photography from the 20th century. Art photographers included are Stieglitz, Man Ray, Brassai, Cunningham, Brandt and Mapplethorpe, alongside greats of scientific image-making like Nilsson and Hutchings.

Un excelente compendio de la historia de la fotografía referente al amor y al deseo en todos los niveles, ya que abarca imágenes de los primeros tiempos hasta nuestros días; incluye una selección de autores de talento. En esta antología se utilizan imágenes científicas, comerciales y artísticas.