Olympic Portraits

by Annie Leibovitz Publisher : Bulfinch Press Year : 1996 Edition : First Printing : First Pages : 181 Condition : Fine Binding : Hardcover Signed : Yes Price : $319.95

Item Description :

A Bulfinch Press Book / Little Brown and Co. 1996. FIRST EDITION, stated. As new condition, small red line on top edge of page block. 4to - over 9.75" - 12" tall. A selection of the photographs of American athletes, taken by the legendary Annie Leibovitz from Dec. 1993 to June 1996, during their training for the 26th Olympiad in Atlanta, 1996. Signed by Author/Photographer. Includes 181 pages of portraits of the athletes from the '96 Games in true Leibovitz style. In fine unread condition, the book features photographic boards and high quality paper for the portraits. A very nice copy. Landmark collection of photographs of male and female athletes. Now regarded as a late-modern sports photography classic. Published in a relatively small and limited print run as a hardcover original only. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. A handsome production by Annie Leibovitz and Raul Martinez: Regular-sized volume format. Pictorial hard boards with red and white titles on spine, as issued. Photographs and brief Introduction by Annie Leibovitz. List of Athletes appended at the end with complete captions. Printed on thick coated stock paper in the United States to the very highest standards. Without DJ, as issued. Published on the occasion of the Olympic Arts Festival held in conjunction with the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. Presents the most celebrated photographer of celebrities shooting Olympic athletes. It seems just right when the photographer in question is Annie Leibovitz, whose portraits have always managed to capture the inner turmoil lurking beneath outward calm. Wisely, she chose to shoot her athletes not in Atlanta, surrounded by hoopla, but in preparation for the games, isolated and intense. The results are stunning and erotic at the same time: A sculpted Carl Lewis in repose, achieving a Mapplethorpian elegance mixed with menace; a poised and incredibly focused Michael Johnson, suggesting all the unleashed energy it would take to run faster than anyone has ever run before; a sober U. S. Women's Softball Team, exuding the determination that would eventually produce wild jubilation and the gold medal. Still, what drives these stark, darkly lit black-and-white photographs isn't our knowledge of the eventual results in Atlanta but a sense of the overwhelming solitary confinement of athletic training, the peculiar loneliness that comes with the obsession to excel. And yet, the spectator/viewer cannot help but respond erotically to the perfection that is unself-consciously shown before his or her eyes. The athlete is perfection incarnated, and is therefore heaven-sent to any photographer for whom there is no further need to "idealize". These talismanic photographs will endure beyond our memory of who won. A brilliant collection. This title has been out-of-print for some time. This is one of relatively few copies of the First Hardcover Edition still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. A scarce copy thus. Lavishly illustrated with duotone plates that are angularly presented on nearly every page to suggest the athlete's movement, grace, and rhythm. One of the finest living American photographers.181 pages.



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