Paru le 25/08/2011 | Broché sous jaquette 272 pages
Tout public
Alexey Brodovitch
« If you know yourself you are doomed. »
Such was the attitude with which legendary designer and photographer Alexey Brodovitch (1898-1971), the long-time art director of Harper's Bazaar, approached each new project and transformed the world of graphic design in the twentieth century. Though known foremost for his work on Harper's, Brodovitch's legacy extended far beyond the magazine's pages : as a teacher in Philadelphia and New York for some five decades, he inspired dozens of young photographers and art directors who would go on to become famous names themselves, including Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Robert Frank, and Lisette Model.
This book narrates the life and work of Alexey Brodovitch, documenting with extensive research and rare archival images his contributions to photography, design, and the visual arts. Author Kerry Purcell draws from original interviews with Brodovitch's friends, colleagues, and fellow photographers to profile the man himself as well as his extraordinary career.
Born and educated in ezarist Russia, Brodovitch spent the 1920s in Paris working with Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. He emigrated to America in 1930 and was quickly discovered by Carmel Snow, editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar, who hired him as art director in 1934, Brodovitch's work at Harper's, which continued until 1958, became his magnum opus; his layouts revolutionized magazine design with their deceptive simplicity.
In New York from the 1940s through the 1960s, Brodovitch taught the legendary Design Laboratory, an informal evening workshop that became a regular pilgrimage for young photographers and designers. Brodovitch produced and collaborated on several groundbreaking photography books, including Day of Paris with André Kertész. Observations with Richard Avedon, and his own rare work, Ballet. In 1950-51, Brodovitch designed the magazine Portfolio, which became a manifestation of his approach to the printed page.
This book showeases more than 300 images of Brodovitch and his original designs, reproducing in their entirety the books Ballet, Day of Paris, and Saloon Society, as well as covers and every spread from all three issues of Portfolio. Among the rare materials included are book covers and posters from Brodovitch's early work in Paris and Philadelphia, more than 80 spreads and covers from Harper's Bazaar, and contact sheets of photographs he took with a concealed Minox camera in the 1960s, while he was a patient at Ward's Island Hospital, a mental institution in Manhattan.
Kerry William Purcell is a writer, lecturer, and freelance picture editor. A former archivist at The Photographer's Gallery in London, he has written widely on film and photography. He lives in East Sussex, England.
