X-ray: Photographs by Francois Nars - Hardcover

Nars, Francois; Talley, Andre Leon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 050054235X ISBN 13: 9780500542354

Publisher: Thames & Hudson Ltd, 1999

Synopsis

A collection of photographs by world-renowned make-up artist Francois Nars. His aim was to create an art book containing over 200 elegant and unconventional images, featuring his favourite personalities from the worlds of fashion, design, film and music - and people who stood out on the street, personifying bold, audacious chic. Nars travelled the globe and invited each individual to sit for him, styling each portrait session according to the sitters "metier", personality and "elan". The result is a portait, or X-ray, of individuals who include: Alexander McQueen, Amber Valletta, Christy Turlington, Grace Jones, Angelica Houston, Anna Sui, Earth Kitt, Anita Pallenberg, Isabella Rossellini, Juliette Lewis, Lauren Hutton, Lauryn Hill, Manalo Blahnik, Paloma Picasso, Quentin Crisp and Nigel Coates.

About this title

Review:

Famed make-up artist and photographer Francois Nars has assembled a book of portraits he has taken. The one page preface, written in French by fashion maven Andre Leon Talley, makes the point that this is not a text-heavy book. The photos are large format and each portrait occupies an entire page. Readers will find many familiar as well as unfamiliar faces here, all set in vivid Technicolor against a stark white background. The most recognisable are the photos of supermodel Shalom Harlow as a naughty Snow White. His subjects are varied but they are all legends in their own right, contributors to a stylistic vision, both of Nars' world and their own. A few favourites of this reviewer are Ivanka Trump as a perched yellow canary, Kate Moss as Dorothy, Alexander McQueen wearing Union Jack contact lenses and Amber Valleta as a 1960s airline stewardess. Then there are the more straightforward portraits--involving less costuming--of Chloe Sevigny, Sharon Gault, Grace Jones, Isabella Rossellini, Francesco Clemente, Tim Burton, Susan Sarandon and a slew of models, designers, artists and musicians young and old. The portraits are simple, yet his sense of colour and the up front and centre feeling of the images--so many interesting faces, some staring at readers unmasked, and others transformed into utter fantasy--is phenomenally powerful. --Amra Brooks

About this edition

• Publisher: Thames & Hudson Ltd
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 050054235X
• ISBN 13: 9780500542354
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 252