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Book Summary InformationAuthor: Robin Givhan Photographer: Lucian Perkins Edition: Hardcover Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published) Published: 1998-09-01 ISBN: 0811821730 Number of pages: 120 Publisher: Chronicle Books
Book Reviews of Runway MadnessBook Review: Insightful Photography Summary: 5 Stars
I was fascinated by Perkins' book examining the fashon industry---something that was quite foreign to me. His insightful photographic analysis of the industry and the people opened a new understanding of this activity so foreign to those of us in west Texas. His photographs conveyed the the energy, the joy and despair, anxiety and confidence that accompanies modeling. A great "inside look" by an immanently accomplished photographer.
Summary of Runway MadnessThe unexpected runway moment, the candid dressingroom expression, the steely eyed scrutiny of the front-row denizens. Runway Madness is a personal invitation to New York's infamous Fashion Week. More than 100 arresting photographs by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Lucian Perkinsmany never published until nowtell the behind-the-scenes story of this unparalleled fashion event. Perkins captures the models up-close and personal: Kate Moss without make-up, Naomi Campbell in curlers, and Shalom Harlow, Amber Valetta, Christy Turlington, and many others in high pomp as well as unguarded circumstance. Also exposed are the fashion editors and buyers, journalists, and stars whose high-visibility presence is essential. Quotes from fashion insiders provide a running commentary and captions by Washington Post fashion writer Robin Givhan explain each image. The beat, the lights, the cascade of beauty and color: this is not only a performance, but also a performance art. Long and lean like the runway itself, Runway Madness is the total high fashion experience. "Beyond the smoke and mirrors of the runway lies another part of the fashion world." It is there that Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Lucian Perkins finds the most compelling images: über-waif Kate Moss sipping champagne decked out in an undershirt, jeans, and a bogling network of curled hair extensions. Design maven Isaac Mizrahi fretting over a voluminous skirt. Glamour-pusses Naomi Campbell and Veronica Webb lolling around, waiting for their curlers to set, while the clock ticks at the rate of $250 per hour. Perkins gets up on the runway, too. He turns his camera on his colleagues, who form an impenetrable wall of extra-long lenses and tripods. He looks out into the audience, where he finds the gender-bending RuPaul, Southern belle Dolly Parton, and actress Mira Sorvino parked amid the ubiquitous fashion editors and buyers and socialites. And he follows the impossibly fabulous creatures as they strut their wares down that most glamorous corridor--the runway. The unusually long and narrow shape of the book is an excellent format for Perkins's atmospheric panoramic shots, and leaves room for quotes by Azzedine Alaia, Coco Chanel, and other fashion fixtures to accompany the smaller images. Readers who don't share original supermodel Iman's fashion ennui--she's quoted as saying she "couldn't get excited about another dress"--should be more than sated by the 100 fantastic photos of frocks, gowns, and shifts in Runway Madness.
Artists, A-Z Books
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Catwalkby Sandra Morris Universe; Published: 1996-03-15; Hardcover; BookBest price: $24.93
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