1st Edition Book, "Cecil Beaton, a Retrospective", by David Mellor, Cecil Beaton

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Offered is a 1st American edition of book "Cecil Beaton: A Retrospective", edited by David Mellor, a companion book to … Read more Offered is a 1st American edition of book "Cecil Beaton: A Retrospective", edited by David Mellor, a companion book to a British exhibition of Beaton's work. Hardcover, dust jacket, gray cloth boards, embossed spine.

ISBN 0821216325
ISBN-13 9780821216323
Pages 256
Edition Illustrated
Publisher Little Brown and Company
Published 1986
Measures 9.5" wide, 1" deep, 11.5" tall

This catalogue comprises three parts: articles on various aspects of his art; full-page color plates; and a catalogue listing. The essay writers discuss Beaton's love of theatricality and artifice and its evidence in his style: subjects posed in period costume, shot against or reflected in mirrors, the photographer's own reflection visible in a photo, ironic and sometimes severely unflattering angles. Even his wartime photos have the oddly displaced quality of a stage set. The full-size color plates here are disappointingly few in number; the book's other sections are themselves well illustrated with photos, though these are smaller and black-and-white. Many of the same pictures also appear in Beaton in Vogue (see review above), where they are generally reproduced in larger size; this volume is perhaps more useful as commentary than for basking in Beaton's art. See less