Light Reading: Bold Beauty and Creative Expression

An Embarrassment of Riches by Adrian Buckmaster
Glitterati Inc. | 272 pp. | $85
Exoticism has always been the go-to motif of fashion photography. Understandably, it was fashion shooters who first introduced that theme into editorial portraiture. Eccentric props and settings, baroque costumes and dreamlike color effects are the accepted hallmarks of what might otherwise devolve into conventional magazine coverage of our human family. Adrian Buckmaster—a veteran of beauty campaigns for such clients as Revlon and L’Oréal—is one of the heirs to the alternative portrait genre. His skill and imagination are on rampant display in this newly released monograph, a rich parade of quirky faces and bodies and over-the-top wardrobe and props. There’s also some occasional gender bending, along with tableaus both hilarious and somber that interact subjects with each other or with some surreal milieu.

Crazy wardrobe and accessories, outlandish wigs and jewelry, wild experimental makeup and carefully modulated expressions on the faces of his subjects all contribute to the eccentric oeuvre of Adrian Buckmaster—collected in his just-released monograph, An Embarrassment of Riches. Photos © Adrian Buckmaster

Flamboyant costumes abound, replete with oddball headgear, unisex bustiers, billowing pantaloons, ornate brocades and shimmering otherworldly ornaments. One begins to wonder about this photographer’s upbringing, which of course is part of the book’s great charm.

As to its actual value for the rest of us, it’s a vast catalogue of useful techniques and arresting special effects, particularly in the use of sculpted, off-axis soft light. For lighting ideas alone, the book lives up to its hefty price tag. Buckmaster has mastered the use of low-key lighting without completely sacrificing shadow detail, a useful skill for those of us—especially portrait, boudoir and wedding specialists—who have to deliver recognizable likenesses, no matter how unconventional the overall image.

With Marilyn: An Evening/1961 by Douglas Kirkland

Glitterati Inc. | 144 pp. | $60

The accepted lore about Marilyn Monroe was that she was fragile and insecure on a motion picture set, but elegant, confident and completely in charge in front of the still camera. This no doubt accounts for the score of A-list photographers who doted on her. For many, their shoots with Marilyn were life-changing—Bert Stern, after a seemingly career-ending hiatus called his last Marilyn session “the ship that guided me back to port.” For all of them—Milton Green, Inge Morath, Tom Kelly, Sam Shaw and a legion of others—their Marilyn experiences became permanent parts of their artistic personas, giving way to breathless recollections of this iconic movie star, and, in many cases, entire books devoted to their MM imagery. Celebrated veteran editorial and commercial shooter Douglas Kirkland now weighs in with his own photographic memento of a single 1961 session at a rented Hollywood studio.

Learning to See Creatively/Third Edition by Bryan Peterson 
Amphoto Nooks | 160 pp. | $25.99

In this slick, well-illustrated book, Bryan Peterson taps into the vein of personal creative expression. In his typically conversational style, Peterson bridges the gap between an intangible notion like creativity and the practical realities of using photographic technique. He revisits the fundamental tenets of design, composition, optics, lighting, and after-capture software with advice on how to repurpose these tools for fresh, powerful results. One expects a Bryan Peterson title to appear with regularity every year or two, but if he didn’t ever do another one, his reputation as a first-rate photo educator is secured by Learning to See Creatively.