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Check out the Latest Media Coverage of powerHouse Books !!
Updated: January 2003 PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY Recommended Photography Book of 2002, Associated Press "For more than 50 years [Claxton] has photographed luminaries, mostly in the worlds of music and film, and managed to seem unjaded, curious, his own man. He has shown uncommon good sense by choosing to photograph mainly those who appeal to his intriguing style and glamour, most lovingly the postwar giants of jazz. But Marlene Dietrich, Samuel Fuller, Mia Farrow, Terry Southern, Burt Bacharach, Tuesday Weld, Vladimir Nabokov, John Cassavetes, and Benicio Del Toro also have cameo roles in his latest book, Photographic Memory, further proof of a developed, offbeat taste. His pictures of them, each tagged with a fitting anecdote, make a career spent shooting celebrities actually look as fun and sexy and interesting as it's supposed to be. Better-known now, at the age of 74, than at any time of his life, he has become a grandfather of California cool." —Richard B. Woodward for The New York Times "Arts & Leisure" section "William Claxton...is the best known for his portraits of Steve McQueen and jazz musicians like Chet Baker and Duke Ellington. Claxton, who is married to Peggy Moffitt, the woman who famously modeled Rudi Gernreich's topless bathing suit, began his career in the 1950's shooting interiors....But working with the people, he says, is a much more spontaneous process. In his latest book, Photographic Memory, Claxton annotates his photos with recollections of his legendary subjects, like Marlene Dietrich and Vincent Price. —The New York Times Magazine ""Aptly titled, it really is Claxton's memory book, filled with faces and places that have, in various ways, been important in his life. They are the kind of images that cause people to stare intently at a particular page and ask each other, 'Could that possibly be who I think it is?'.... It is a fascinating trip through time and space, partly because Claxton's camera illuminates the intensity, the naiveté, the sunny wholesome optimism of many young people whom the world would later know as talented and sometimes troubled, performers. The book features some of Claxton's buddies who didn't live long enough to fulfill their promise, long with those who were among the hit, the hot, and the happening.... Claxton's somewhat of an icon himself." —Los Angeles Times "Legendary photographer William Claxton's new book of work entitled Photographic Memory is extremely soothing, unless you happen to be a highly strung Judy Garland fan, his shot of a performance, panic-stricken Judy captures her agony just as a bottle of rubbing alcohol is torn from her hand by one of her caretakers. Bottoms up!" —Simon Doonan for The New York Observer "Claxton has been the consummate observer and reporter, photographically, of the post-bebop jazz world, but his range is far more expansive and incisive. Now comes along, for all fellow Claxtonophiles, a treasure trove that is the rest of him. Photographic Memory is a rich book of [Claxton's] life, graceful and exuberant and blissfully witty. The book gathers together 115 photos—some never seen publicly before—of culturati ranging from Lenny Bruce to Marlene Dietrich and including Marilyn Monroe and Ray Charles in an extraordinary group scene. In addition, there are explanatory notes by Claxton to help the reader along the journey." —Vanity Fair "...Claxton has compiled this photographic album of celebrity images dating primarily from the Fifties and Sixties. The collection includes jazz musicians, artists, writers, and directors...but most of the images feature well-known actors.... What makes this book remarkable is Claxton's recall of each personality and photo shoot...which gives us an insider's view of his famous subjects. Recommended for larger general collections." —Library Journal "William Claxton is famous for his 1960s photographs of his wife, Peggy Moffit, in the first topless bathing suit by Rudi Gernreich. But Claxton mostly shot jazz photos, and through music, also got to shoot most of the nourish movie stars of the past five decades—work he's now collected in his book Photographic Memory. One of the best shots in its pages is of Marilyn Monroe and Ray Charles..." —New York Daily News "Claxton is as much a legend as his famous subjects....Claxton's new book, Photographic Memory, is a collection of candid portraits of people who have inspired him." —W Magazine "'I'm back to my bad old self,' [said Claxton]. He's even been shooting again and will put out a book called Photographic Memory full of anecdotes from his shoots." —Women's Wear Daily "Upon learning it, William Claxton it seems would never again refrain from photographing the camera-friendly faces of some of music and art's most well-known proponents, providing many memorable and iconoclastic portraits of jazz's quintessential musicians and Hollywood's elite....Over a hundred of Claxton's photos, chronicling the development of jazz, bebop, and the stars of young Hollywood, have been complied into a photo-journal entitled Photographic Memory, released this month....This debut monograph by an influential photographer and industry insider indulges in the images and memories that fans both young and old of jazz and the golden age of Hollywood will find delectable." —Flaunt "William Claxton's Photographic Memory is filled with unexpected images of stars: Truman Capote wearing a sobering suit and tie; a young Mia Farrow holding a finger to her lips (she had just eaten a flower); Benicio Del Toro vamping at a fashion shoot. Claxton's recollections add to this book's tantalizing appeal." —O, The Oprah Magazine "Magnificent!" —Felicia Taylor, "Weekend Today in New York," NBC-TV, Best Gift Books of 2002 "Claxton is most famous for his pictures of early jazz giants...but the jazz lover also captured the vulnerability of a young Mia Farrow, the silliness of Terry Southern, the smugness of Joni Mitchell, and many more famous faces." —Entertainment Weekly "His visual acuity and generosity are apparent in every image, most of which have never before been published.... Claxton's photographs dull the edge of the sharpest cynic's blade, and leave behind a blend of nostalgia and beauty." —LA Weekly "An album of Hollywood personalities from the '50s and '60s, with unposed portraits of familiar faces (Shelley Winters, Shirley MacLaine, Marlene Deitrich included) that look so fresh and new, you wonder they've been hiding them all this time." —The Advocate "Most of these large black-and-white pictures date from the 1960s, when Fred Astaire and Frank Sinatra ruled and Ursula Andress and Natalie Wood took boys' breaths away. The gossipy captions at the back of the book and the longer anecdotes adjacent to some of the photos set an edge against their mostly carefree message. At Aldous Huxely's house in 1955, the author of Brave New World offers Claxton coffee, tea or mescaline. At a 1961 lunch at the Polo Lounge a spacey Mia Farrow munches on petals plucked from the bouquets nearby, proclaims herself 'at one with the flowers,' declines the menu, and burps. Young Chet Baker looks just the way a sensitive jazz genius should look.....These 153 photos combine with such stories to portray a world where delusion, indulgence, and time were silently eroding the talent, beauty, and lavish comfort that made these "stars" seem the luckiest people on earth." —Albuquerque Journal North "Although best known for his jazz photographs, Photographic Memory...reveals Claxton as a versatile artist whose subject is the human face and the human form. 'The international languages of jazz and photography need no special education or sophistication to be enjoyed,' he has said. 'All I ask you to do is listen with your eyes.' —David Friend for The Digital Journalist "Any unoccupied coffee table in the home of an upscale collector of books would be given fulfillment with the advent of a large sized book titled 'Photographic Memory,' which is the astonishing work of William Claxton, a photgorapher of extraordinary talent.... These Claxton photos are breathtaking and, in a sense, monumental. So clear, so creative. From the look of the pages in 'Photographic Memory,' celebs seem eager and anxious to pose for this legendary lens man.... powerHouse Books is the publisher. Congrats to that company for publishing this work of art. You'll make somebody very happy allowing them to become the recipient of this treasured collection." —National Newspaper Association, 62 newspaper nationwide "...features many of those faces that are indelibly inscribed on our photographic landscape." —SoHo Style "William Claxton has a photographic memory and stars in his eyes.... But Claxton has a dark secret which is revealed... William Claxton is starstruck. In Photographic Memory...the photographer shows himself to be as adroit with an anecdote as he is with a light meter." —Flaunt More Press Coverage!! |
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