Extreme Beauty in Vogue

This book, published in conjunction with the exhibition of the same title (Milan, Spring 2009), is produced in collaboration with Dolce & Gabbana. Always audacious, sometimes outrageous, Vogue’s images distinguish themselves by their willingness to explore the limits of contemporary ideas of beauty and they are created by the greatest photographers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The one hundred or so featured prints reveal profoundly sensual and highly provocative narratives that bear witness to complex cultural attitudes toward female appearance and self-expression. From the neoclassical figures of Edward Steichen to the unconventional nudes of Annie Leibovitz, the aggressive portraiture of Helmut Newton, and the modernism of Steven Klein, the photographs in this volume consider the evolving female subject, in all her strength and contradiction. An entire section is devoted to Irving Penn, who transforms the face and body into images of extraordinary imaginative and aesthetic power.

Phyllis Posnick began her career at British Vogue. She joined American Vogue in 1987 as executive fashion director. She collaborated on many of the photographs in this book. Eva Respini is an assistant curator in the Department of Photography at the MoMA, NYC. Exhibitions she has curated include New Photography (2005 and 2007) and Into the Sunset: Photography’s Image of the American West (2009).