Legends

From Library Journal
Mapplethorpe and O'Neill both photo graph people, but the resulting portraits bear little similarity. O'Neill is a British photojournalist. His Legends includes shots of famous actors, musicians, and athletes taken over the past 20 years. Some are posed, but most are not. O'Neill knows most of his subjects per sonally, and tries to remove the barrier of the camera from the photographic process. His sitters become for him uniquely accessible, and his portraits reveal their personalities and style. The photographs are penetrating, engaging, sometimes playful, frequently affec tionate, always interesting. Mapple thorpe is an artist, creating formal por traits of great beauty and strength. His subjects are avant-garde artists, musi cians, dancers, body-builders, strip pers. All are conscious of the camera, and offer it a version of themselves, un like O'Neill's subjects who are relaxed and open. Mapplethorpe's work is ad mirable for its formal qualities, but it is also cold, and sometimes disquieting in its juxtaposition of elegant photograph ic style with inelegant subject. His por traits are idealized, larger than life, but curiously lifeless. The print quality is superb, the book beautifully designed and produced. As the work of modern masters of two distinct photographic traditions, both books are recommend ed. Marjorie Miller, Fashion Inst. of Technology Lib., New York
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Publishers Weekly
O'Neill notes that he has a friendship with each of the celebrities included in this first collection of his photographs; indeed, he is married to one of them, Faye Dunaway. The black-and-white portraits, revealing of their subjects, show O'Neill to be a gifted artist. He captures private momentsJanis Joplin preparing to perform, Jane Fonda resting between takes at a filming, Albert Finney exercisingand special timesa pregnant Sharon Tate showing off baby clothes 10 days before her death, Peter Sellers hamming with Lord Snowdon, the first meeting between Elizabeth Taylor and David Bowie. There are shots of Mick Jagger dressed in a business suit, Frank Sinatra on location in Florida with his bodyguards, Sammy Davis Jr. rehearsing, Lawrence Olivier in drag. A glittering photo album of stars. O'Neill's work has appeared in such magazines as Life, Newsweek, People and Vogue. First serial to Playboy. Foreign rights: Jonathan Cape Ltd. November
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.