Alexey Brodovitch

by Kerry William Purcell

If you know yourself, you are doomed". Such was the attitude with which legendary designer and photographer Alexey Brodovitch, the long-time art director of "Harper's Bazaar", approached each new project and transformed graphic design in the 20th century. Brodovitch was known foremost for his work on "Harper's", but his legacy extended far beyond the magazine's pages: as a teacher in Philadelphia and New York for some five decades, he inspired dozens of young photographers and art directors who would go on to become famous names themselves, including Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Robert Frank and Lisette Model.

Born and educated in Tsarist Russia, Brodovitch was gifted, mercurial, and by turn inspiring and infuriating. He accepted nothing less than constant innovation from himself and his students, yet insisted that no one could ever really teach design - that creation had to come from within. This book chronicles Brodovitch's life and work, documenting his contributions to photography, design and the visual arts, and his collaborations with photographers and artists. This book includes many quotes from original interviews with Brodovitch's friends, colleagues and fellow photographers. The book is divided into six roughly chronological chapters, beginning with Brodovitch's childhood in Russia and his early design work in the 1920s, and ending with his last difficult and solitary years in New York, when he battled alcoholism and ill health.

Product Details

- Publisher: Phaidon Press

- Published: 2002

- Dimensions: 290 x 250 mm

- Pages: 272

- Illustrations: 272 pp c.275 colour illustrations 75 bw ills.

- Binding: Hardback

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Editorial Reviews

‘a masterpiece...there will never be a better looking or truer book on Brodovitch. We still have lessons to learn from what he taught and accomplished all those years ago...’

Richard Avedon

‘Not everyone could stomach the ruthless criticism he dished out; but for every Diane Arbus who left because ‘she didn’t like the forbidding atmosphere he created around himself’ there was an Art Kane, a Richard Avedon or an Irving Penn who was stimulated and entranced by him. All this, and more, is documented in this authoritatively written and excellently illustrated book.’

Ken Garland

‘Brodovitch was a one-man visual revolution, and ALEXEY BRODOVITCH, a gorgeous new book from Phaidon by Kerry William Purcell, lays out the history.’

Vanity Fair