Writers is a compilation of photographs by Nancy Crampton, highlighting a wide range of authors in duotone/hardcover coffee table format.
Nancy is the official photographer of New York's Unterberg Poetry Center, famous for its literary readings, and this publication coincided with a nationwide exhibition
These photographs, dating from the 1970s through the 1990s, range from the well known (Steinem, Capote, Mailer) to posed studio shots, candid at home shots to casual street locations. Each full page photograph is accompanied by a few paragraphs by the authors in their own words - their motivations, inspirations or personal schedules - on writing in general. This book works on several levels: as an enduring record of twentieth-century writers, for those into the art of photography and portraiture, and for readers wanting to learn more about the artists who created their favourite novels. While there is no question writers deserve a glossy top-rate shout out, I found I was attracted more to their practice rather than their portrait. Some may be drawn to look into their eyes, seeking a glimpse of their imagination, while for me the power of writing is the printed/written word. I am always about the yolk, not the shell. My favourite profile in the book (besides seeing the library office of John Updike) is a shot of John Cheever and his dog, which only encourages me to go back and read his work again.
If you are a lover of literature, especially of the now classics of the 1960s - 90s, this is a quality book.
Featured are Toni Morrison, Edward Albee, Maya Angelou, Margaret Atwood, Saul Bellow, Peter Carey, Truman Capote, Billy Collins, Muriel Spark, Richard Ford, Jonathan Franzen, Gunter Grass, Joseph Heller, Christopher Isherwood, Tony Kushner, Doris Lessing, David Mamet, Alice Munro, Joyce Carol Oates, Edna O'Brien, Annie Proulx, George Plimpton, Oliver Sacks, Philip Roth, Sam Shepard, Susan Sontag, Gloria Steinem, Tom Stoppard, Paul Theroux, Alice Walker, and Tennessee Williams, amongst many others.
2005 / Hardcover / 224 pages
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