Sheila Metzner: From Life

Description

This exquisite volume presents more than 300 photographs accompanied by the ground-breaking artist s enchanting stories of the inspirations behind her critically acclaimed work. The first female art director at Doyle Dane Bernbach advertising agency in the 1960s, Sheila Metzner became a photographer while raising five children. In 1978, one of Metzner s portraits became the hit of a controversial exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art; gallery shows and assignments from Alexander Liberman at Vogue soon followed. At a time when Avedon, Penn, and Piel commandeered its pages, Metzner became the first female photographer to receive steady work from Vogue. Always pushing artistic boundaries, Metzner s distinctive photographic aesthetic soon positioned her as a contemporary master not only in fashion photography but also in fine art, portraiture, still life, and landscape. With memoir-like vignettes that accompany her photos, this book is a deeply personal look at the artist s career as a peer to fashion and film luminaries such as Diane Arbus and Richard Avedon. Featuring her renowned fashion editorials and acclaimed fine-art photography, this volume will appeal to both fashion and photography lovers.

Sheila Metzner s photographs are featured in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the International Center of Photography, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, and more. She has published four books. Hunter Drohojowska-Philp is author of numerous books M. Raven Metzner is a television producer and screenwriter.

"Sheila Metzner: From Life is one of the most intimate accountings of a creative. Metzner genuinely speaks of her journey from the heart and exposes herself in ways that most authors within this genre would eschew. . . . Her oeuvre is haunting yet personal and makes it clear by the rank she holds in the hierarchy of great photographers. This is one of those books that is a must read for those who consider themselves informed on the subject of photography and for those who wish to read and learn from one of the greats. Even the fashion crowd will be fascinated when they read and are able to see the body of work presented as a whole. If you have a soft spot for those who are creatively blessed then this is a must read." -New York Journal of Books "For Metzner-whose retrospective-in-a-book, Sheila Metzner: From Life, is out now via Rizzoli- reading was living, because it was all she could do. Digging through encyclopedias of faraway countries and thumbing through novels and magazines about uncharted territories allowed her to develop her own idiosyncratic mind and eye, which in turn saw her limitations become opportunities. It all culminates in Sheila Metzner: From Life, which she calls 'a representation of forty years of taking pictures. The tip of an iceberg that rises above and sits on the bottom of a sea of images.' " -Flaunt Magazine "Sheila Metzner: From Life presents a deeply personal side of famed art and fashion photographer Sheila Metzner. Memoir-like vignettes and family portraits are juxtaposed with her professional editorial and advertising photography. The American photographer's career at Vogue, where she worked with Alexander Liberman, took her around the world on assignments for major fashion brands, while her personal photographs revealed a sensibility toward the human form and love of the natural world. This book covers the entire spectrum, from her nudes and sacred landscapes, fine art photography, and fashion editorials to sneak peaks into her life as a mother of five. With essays by art critic Hunter Drohojowska-Philp and Metzner's oldest child (and regular photographic subject), it is sure to appeal to fashion and photography lovers alike." -GalerieMagazine.com