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I see, I collect - therefore I am." - Cecil Beaton
As one of the 20th century's most important photographers, Cecil Beaton documented lives both famous and quotidian in dozens of scrapbooks now held by Sotheby's London. In the course of his decades-long career as a photographer for Vogue and Vanity Fair, as well as a British war correspondent, Beaton helped invent the cult of the celebrity image. In these pages, reproduced here for the first time, you will enter a fabulous and surreal party where Tallulah Bankhead rubs shoulders with a bust of Voltaire and a portrait of Stravinsky, and where Beaton's first trip on the Queen Mary coincides with Queen Elizabeth's coronation.
James Danziger began his career in the photography world in 1977 as the youngest picture editor of The London Sunday Times Magazine. In the 1980s he became features editor of Vanity Fair where he was instrumental in repositioning the magazine and in championing Annie Leibovitz, now the magazine's chief photographer. From 1989 to 2000, Danziger founded and ran the James Danziger Gallery in New York City, one of the world's top photography galleries, representing such established photographers as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Annie Leibovitz, Mario Giacomelli, and Joel Meyerowitz. He later became director of Magnum Photos' American operations and now runs Danziger Projects, a contemporary projects office and gallery in the Chelsea district of New York City.
As one of the 20th century's most important photographers, Cecil Beaton documented lives both famous and quotidian in dozens of scrapbooks now held by Sotheby's London. In the course of his decades-long career as a photographer for Vogue and Vanity Fair, as well as a British war correspondent, Beaton helped invent the cult of the celebrity image. In these pages, reproduced here for the first time, you will enter a fabulous and surreal party where Tallulah Bankhead rubs shoulders with a bust of Voltaire and a portrait of Stravinsky, and where Beaton's first trip on the Queen Mary coincides with Queen Elizabeth's coronation.
James Danziger began his career in the photography world in 1977 as the youngest picture editor of The London Sunday Times Magazine. In the 1980s he became features editor of Vanity Fair where he was instrumental in repositioning the magazine and in championing Annie Leibovitz, now the magazine's chief photographer. From 1989 to 2000, Danziger founded and ran the James Danziger Gallery in New York City, one of the world's top photography galleries, representing such established photographers as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Annie Leibovitz, Mario Giacomelli, and Joel Meyerowitz. He later became director of Magnum Photos' American operations and now runs Danziger Projects, a contemporary projects office and gallery in the Chelsea district of New York City.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Lived up to expectations . . .
24 Jan 2012
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I expected the book to be disappointing, and it was.
For someone's scrapbook to be of any interest or value to others, it needs to have appeal beyond that of the mementos to the creator himself. One way in which this scrapbook might be said to achieve that is by containing lots of photos of celebrities of the past. But you need to know who these celebrities were, and if you're not English and didn't move in the same tony circles that Beaton moved in, you're likely to be unmoved at seeing the majority of the photos. And there are no captions or index to identify anything or anyone, a major drawback for "readers" and a sign of slapdash compilation on the part of the editors.
Another way you might be entertained by someone else's scrapbook is through the interesting arrangement of the various "scraps" on the page, and while the introduction says something about clever juxtapositions, I failed to find very many of those. The book seems to be nothing more than the creator's way of preserving his souvenirs, without any thought of pleasing anyone but himself.
And the cumbersome, weighty format is just wretched excess which adds nothing to the enjoyment of the book. The enormous size seems to be just another way in which the editors shirked their duties--"Let's make it so big that it'll bowl 'em over, and maybe they won't notice that there's really not much here." I guess one thing the size does is make it very obvious that you own the book--visitors that you want to impress can't help but notice it covering your coffee table or bowing your shelf. In this connection, I've noticed it in several recent photo spreads of luxurious homes in decorating magazines. So I'd say the ostentation factor is probably its main appeal.
Luckily, I was able to re-sell mine and recoup some of the ridiculous price (even at a 40% discount, it ain't worth the dough), and I notice that the used copies are beginning to pile up at Amazon.com.
Recommendation: want to see a truly entertaining scrapbook? Petition Yale University to publish the scrapbooks of Carl Van Vechten.
For someone's scrapbook to be of any interest or value to others, it needs to have appeal beyond that of the mementos to the creator himself. One way in which this scrapbook might be said to achieve that is by containing lots of photos of celebrities of the past. But you need to know who these celebrities were, and if you're not English and didn't move in the same tony circles that Beaton moved in, you're likely to be unmoved at seeing the majority of the photos. And there are no captions or index to identify anything or anyone, a major drawback for "readers" and a sign of slapdash compilation on the part of the editors.
Another way you might be entertained by someone else's scrapbook is through the interesting arrangement of the various "scraps" on the page, and while the introduction says something about clever juxtapositions, I failed to find very many of those. The book seems to be nothing more than the creator's way of preserving his souvenirs, without any thought of pleasing anyone but himself.
And the cumbersome, weighty format is just wretched excess which adds nothing to the enjoyment of the book. The enormous size seems to be just another way in which the editors shirked their duties--"Let's make it so big that it'll bowl 'em over, and maybe they won't notice that there's really not much here." I guess one thing the size does is make it very obvious that you own the book--visitors that you want to impress can't help but notice it covering your coffee table or bowing your shelf. In this connection, I've noticed it in several recent photo spreads of luxurious homes in decorating magazines. So I'd say the ostentation factor is probably its main appeal.
Luckily, I was able to re-sell mine and recoup some of the ridiculous price (even at a 40% discount, it ain't worth the dough), and I notice that the used copies are beginning to pile up at Amazon.com.
Recommendation: want to see a truly entertaining scrapbook? Petition Yale University to publish the scrapbooks of Carl Van Vechten.
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