Archaeology of Elegance: Visionary Fashion Photography. 1980-2000, 20 Years of Fashion Photography

New York: Rizzoli, 2002. 1st US. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 363 pages. Large format with gorgeous color photography throughout. White pictorial dust jacket with some light soiling and wear. Wrinkled wrap-around band. A nice, clean, tight copy. Archeology of Elegance is an exceptional and dynamic collection of 200 superb photographs by sixty-two of today's most acclaimed photographers from Robert Mapplethorpe to Peter Lindbergh, Miles Aldridge, Herb Ritts, Ellen von Unwerth, Nick Knight, David Lachapelle and Jean-Baptiste Mondino, presenting fashion photography as art. During the past twenty years, there is no question that fashion photography has become a driving force for new directions in fashion, design and cosmetics and a vital source of ideas for the visual arts and design–manifesting itself in forms as diverse as punk rock, glamour or high-tech futurism. According to culture critic Ulf Poschardt, fashion photography has become the new, almost self-sufficient leitmedia of international culture, a culture that is expressed increasingly in visual terms. As seen in Archeology of Elegance, this once commercial and functional craft has become, without question, an art form in itself. Record # 850165