Robert Maxwell: Photographs

Robert Maxwell is one of the most exciting new photographers to have emerged on the savagely competitive scene of fashion and editorial photography. In Photographs, Maxwell shares his edgy nudes, portraits, and still lifes that are at once modern and, strangely, part of the past. Much has been written about the lack of innovation in contemporary photography, and this book, Maxwell's first, underscores why he is widely considered to be one of the most interesting photographers of his generation. Combining a rough-edged eroticism with a genuine interest in form and beauty, Maxwell's nudes-perhaps the most difficult genre to master-are in a class by themselves. His elegant portrait studies of his family, friends, and passersby, are fresh and original and bring to mind the groundbreaking work of Irving Penn or of Richard Avedon. But Maxwell is distinguished from his modernist forebears both aesthetically and by his unique approach to the medium: He utilizes the nineteenth-century glass wetplate technology known as the ambrotype-called the "black art" of photography for its rich, dark and reflective surfaces. These gorgeous glass objects, as well as the artist's platinum and silver prints, come alive in this striking book that is certain to become a milestone in the art of bookmaking.