Seeing Fashion by
Melvin Sokolsky. First edition. First impression. Large format hardback in fine condition. No internal markings, pages clean, binding firm. There is some minor toning to the dust jacket which is now in a removable protective sleeve. Please see pictures. PayPal accepted, any questions please get in touch.
About Seeing Fashion
So, the period between 1955 and 1970 has become widely recognized as a kind of golden age in American magazine culture. In these years the commercial imperative had failed to override the arguably irrational urge to utilize mass circulation periodicals as a platform for personal expression. Following a time of neglect or indifference, the legacy of many photographers, artists, and designers is again investigated and celebrated. So, one of the more unusual figures in this pantheon was Melvin Sokolsky. His relatively brief but intense career as a photographer was at the same time paradigmatic and evidence of how an individual signature could prevail in a commercial environment.
"Astonishingly inventive" and also "technically consummate" are typical of the encomiums that Sokolsky's photographs elicit. The constant stream of frequently audacious ideas that he brought, month after month, to the pages of Harper's Bazaar certainly bears witness to the claims of fecundity. The effects he achieved, apparently effortlessly, were the result of tireless experimentation as well as skillful craftsmanship. He stretched beyond the nominal brief of illustrating clothes, urged on by his tenacious imagination. Fired up by an almost child like thrill with the power of the image. With articulating the body in space, and also the search to find new ways to make an impact on the magazine page.
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