"PHIL STERN - A LIFE'S WORK". Collectif. Editions PowerHouse Books, New York. 2003. Edition originale. Imprimé en Italie Grand in-4, couverture cartonnée photo, sous emboitage carton photo. 256 pages. Textes en anglais de Patricia Bosworth, Nat Hentoff, Herbert Mitgang, avant-propos de Brett Ratner, introduction par Carol McCusker, illustré de très nombreuses reproductions photographiques, 274 en noir & blanc et 73 en couleurs, pleine page pour la plupart, par Phil Stern.

 

"Young, poor, Leftist, wielding a 35mm camera during the Depression - this description fits the early careers of scores of celebrated names in twentieth-century photography, from Robert Capa to Louis Faurer to Phil Stern. ln order to understand the determination and character of these photographers, as well as how they approached their subject matter, this description is crucial. It broadens our appreciation of what they accomplished, and why. Phil Stern' craft provided him with a way of both getting out and getting in. The camera took him from New York to war-torn Europe to Hollywood and the music industry. Throughout his career, what drew attention to Stern was his signature style, which celebrated working people - a focus that reflected his own ethos. During World War Il, he portrayed the GI as the icon of the 1940s. With celebrities, he did the opposite: humanizing them by photographing them working, joking, or relaxing before his camera. Stern was an egalitarian, a position adopted by many photojournalists largely in response to the rise of fascism, which deemed democracy of any stripe objectionable to the "New European Order." Stern's identity as a working-class, first-generation son of Russian Jews is integral to both what he left behind and what he was heading toward. He never forgot his parents' immigrant status, or the misery of the Depression years, He took risks, and respected what the clout of institutions such as the armed forces and the entertainment industries could do for him. Although he was fiercely independent - and at times antagonistic toward these very institutions - they provided his means of escape from the poverty of his youth in New York, and from a cycle of proscribed racial identity..." Carol McCusker.

 

 Ref LPB1181