Best Face Forward

A renowned photographer, curator, and critic offers extraordinary insights into the evolution and significance of portrait photography. “When we contemplate a portrait,” says Gerry Badger in his introduction to this book, “we are asked to contemplate life. We are drawn powerfully to the person depicted. ” The relational aspect of portraiture comes into sharp focus through this personal selection of photographic portraits from the past two centuries. Here readers will find very-well known works by widely recognized photographers together with lesser-known, but no less superb pictures by lesser-known artists. Tied together with Badger’s unique insights, these photographs reference and complement each other in an ongoing conversation about portrait photography’s history, perspectives, and concerns. Each entry features a gorgeous full-page duotone or color image accompanied by a brief essay. Badger’s exacting insights and encyclopedic knowledge of his subject lead readers through a scintillating discussion that examines “death” portraits by Hippolyte Bayard and Sunil Gupta; issues of colonialism and racism through works by Malaysian photographer Yee I-Lann and Samuel Miller’s portrait of Frederick Douglass; portraits of women from the 19th and 20th centuries; and what is perhaps the first “celebrity” photograph of Sarah Bernhardt. Including a variety of mediums, from calotype and collage to palladium and ink-jet prints, this volume is a marvelously enlightening masterclass on photographic portraiture, as well as a unique and valuable reference work.