The Luminous Years by Karl Bissinger
Karl Bissinger dropped out of the world of photography some time in the late 1950s, but before then he spent ten years photographing the luminaries of cafe society and haute bohemia in New York, Paris and London. These photographs capture a lost, golden era of the cultural life. The subjects include Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Gore Vidal, Christopher Isherwood and Katharine Hepburn. From the cafe scene in France he photographed Jean Renoir, Jean Cocteau, Colette and Jean Marais, and English luminaries include Aldous Huxley, Rex Harrison, Alec Guinness and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
Karl Bissinger was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1914. After high school, he moved to New York and enrolled in the Art Students League where he studied painting with George Grosz, Yasuo Kunioshi, and Morris Kantor. During the Depression, Bissinger found work as a property stylist for the Conde Nast photographic studios where he met and befriended several of the staff photographers, including Irving Penn, Cecil Beaton, and Richard Avedon. Avedon, a rising star at Harper's Bazaar, encouraged Bissinger to pursue photography, which he did, taking photographs - primarily portraits but also the occasional fashion story - for Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, Theatre Arts, Town & Country, and Flair magazines. Always drawn to radical politics and the pacifist movement, Bissinger eventually abandoned photography. In the 1960s, he worked for the American Friends Service Committee and then joined the War Resister's League where he continues to work to this day. He lives in New York.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780810946026 |
| ISBN 10 | 0810946025 |
| Title | The Luminous Years |
| Author | Karl Bissinger |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Abrams |
| Year published | 2003-11-01 |
| Number of pages | 144 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |