In 1964, Richard Avedon, at the time the world's most famous fashion photographer, and James Baldwin, a leading literary voice in the black struggle in America, col laborated on a searing portrait book, Nothing Personal. This controversial classic from the heart of the American civil rights movement explores the contradictions and extremities at the heart of the American experience, and is especially timely in the age of Donald Trump. Avedon's subjects range from intellectuals, politicians, a former slave, newlyweds, ...
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In 1964, Richard Avedon, at the time the world's most famous fashion photographer, and James Baldwin, a leading literary voice in the black struggle in America, col laborated on a searing portrait book, Nothing Personal. This controversial classic from the heart of the American civil rights movement explores the contradictions and extremities at the heart of the American experience, and is especially timely in the age of Donald Trump. Avedon's subjects range from intellectuals, politicians, a former slave, newlyweds, preacher Billy Graham, pop singers, and civil rights activists, shot in his signature formal and graphic black and white, often tightly cropped. The collection is all the more poignant through its bold and deliberate juxtaposition of specific images, such as Jewish gay poet /Vilen Ginsberg placed opposite the American Nazi Party. Avedon's work with mental asylum patients, shot in a grainy documentary style, is equally harrowing, although he chooses to end Nothing Personal on a hopeful, positive note, with images of children and parents reveling in the Californian ocean. The photographs are complemented by Baldwin's four-part polemic: a critique of a society that he feels is unjust, alienating, divisive, ancf therefore in the midst of an existential crisis. In a highly personal and pertinent testimony, Baldwin openly writes about his own experience of harassment by a racist policeman on the streets of New York. Designed by Marvin Israel, Nothing Personal is also an art-directed triumph from the Mad Men era. An "oversized" book in its own white slipcase, the minimal and striking placement of images and text alike revolutionized the packaging of photography books. This is a meticulous reprint of the original, which has long been out of print, produced in close collaboration with the Richard Avedon Foundation. A 72-page accompanying booklet features never-before-seen outtakes, contact sheets, portraits of the authors at work, preliminary layouts, correspondence, ephemera, and an essay by Baldwin expert and Pulitzer Prize winner Hilton Als. Als traces the making of Nothing Personal and documents the personal and creative relationship between Avedon and Baldwin, who were high school friends in the 1940s. Als also movingly reflects on how Nothing Personal impacted his own life, as well as his friendship with Avedon. When published, Nothing Personals dark, disturbing vision of America inevitably divided critics, and Avedon in particular endured harsh criticism. Some felt that a fashion photographer had no place in dabbling in social commentary, while others found his book to be an elitist statement by New York liberals, unrepresentative of the true feelings of "real" Americans. Sound familiar?
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Add this copy of Nothing Personal (German Edition) to cart. $165.03, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2017 by Taschen GmbH.
Add this copy of Nothing Personal to cart. $1,000.00, very good condition, Sold by Last Exit Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Charlottesville, VA, UNITED STATES, published 1964 by Atheneum.
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Seller's Description:
Very Good. Hardcover. Folio. Atheneum Publishers, New York. 1964. Unpaginated approximately 88 pgs. Illustrated with 52 full and double-page b&w photo illus., 7 b&w images on fold-out. Signed and inscribed by Richard Avedon (as Dick) on the FFEP. First Edition/First Printing. Slipcased with silver label present to the boards of the slipcase. Slipcase worn and lightly foxed. Bound in cloth boards. Boards have light shelf-wear present present to the extremities (light soil present to the extremities of the boards). No ownership marks present. Text is clean and free of marks. Binding tight and solid. In 1963-64, former high school friends Richard Avedon, at the time one of the world's most famous photographers, and James Baldwin, best-selling novelist and essayist and a leading literary voice in the American civil rights movement, collaborated on Nothing Personal, a book about the state of life in America. Avedon's subjects range from civil rights icons, to intellectuals, politicians, pop singers, patients in a mental institution, and ordinary Americans, all carefully juxtaposed, cropped, and tightly sequenced. Here, the American Nazi Party contends with poet Allen Ginsberg, and a weary General Eisenhower gives way to the sway of Malcolm X. Depleted mental institution patients call out for human warmth, and are followed by the embrace of mother and child. Baldwin's four-part essay offers a critique of a society that is disconnected, unjust and divisive, and therefore in the midst of an existential crisis. In a highly personal and pertinent testimony, he writes about his own experience of harassment by a racist police officer in his native New York City. Yet Baldwin, like Avedon, ends his work with the inescapable need for – and power of – love. Designed by legendary art director Marvin Israel, Nothing Personal is a triumph of minimalism. An oversized book in its own white slipcase, the striking placement of both photographs and text revolutionized the design and packaging of photography books. E-378; 4to 11"-13" tall; Signed by Author.