KERRY WILLIAM PURCELL

An accessible, collectable book on Weegee. First immigration American, Weegee (1899¡V1968) is the archetypal tabloid photographer of the twentieth century. Preferring to photograph under the cover of night, he was known for his aggressive use of flash. Weegee¡¦s photographic eye was unstoppable: drawn to the grotesque, the illicit, the illegal, Weegee delivered both harrowing and poignant photographs of crime scenes and criminals to New York¡¦s tabloid-reading public in the 1930s and 1940s. Named after the ¡¥Ouija board¡¦ for his uncanny ability to arrive at the scene of a crime before the police, Weegee recorded the dark side of New York¡¦s streets. No sordid crime seemed to escape his flash and no crime was too gruesome to capture on camera for the papers the next day. Weegee¡¦s understanding of people¡¦s simultaneous repulsion and attraction to vivid photographs of crimes of passion, murder, brutal accidents was well before his time. Even today, his photographs still have the power to shock, and the originality of the images has elevated them in importance far beyond the newspapers he worked for.

Alexey Brodovitch (18981971) is a legend among graphic designers. A Russian who fled the Bolshevik Revolution and eventually settled in Paris and then New York, Brodovitch was one of the pioneers of graphic design in the twentieth century. He was the art director of Harpers Bazaar for two decades (193458) designed and produced several exquisite and highly collectable books with collaborators such as Richard Avedon and Andr Kertsz was a talented photographer himself and, through an informal class called the Design Lab in New York, trained a younger generation of photographers and designers who went on to become famous artists and art directors in their own right. This book is a comprehensive monograph on Brodovitchs life and work, drawing from interviews with a wide range of colleagues and collaborators, and never-before-published archival material to offer an analysis and appreciation of Brodovitchs unique and lasting contribution to the visual arts. About the Author Kerry William Purcell is a writer, lecturer and freelance picture editor. A former archivist at The Photographers Gallery in London, he has written widely on film and photography.

One of Switzerland's most important graphic designers, Josef Muller-Brockman is the father of functional, objective design. This monograph gives a visual understanding of Muller-Brockmann's growth as a graphic designer. It is useful for those interested in the history of graphic design, design students, and professional designers.