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 the 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 and Horst P. Horst. But Maxwell is distinguished from his modernist forebears, aesthetically and by his unique approach to the medium: he utilizes the nineteenth-century glass wet-plate technology known as the ambrotype -- called the "black art" of photography for its rich, dark, and reflective surfaces. These gorgeous glass objects come alive, as do the artist's platinum and silver prints, in this striking book -- certain to become a milestone in the art of bookmaking.