Title: Waldman on dance
Description: Max Waldman is one of the premier photographers of dance and theater today. Clives Barnes, in his Introduction to this book, confirms that "the incomparable Max is America's great theatrical photographer, and one of the handful of photographers who demonstrate the full range and possibility of the camera." In any discussion of Max Waldman, his name is perpetually linked with the giants of art photography: Cameron, Cartier-Bresson, Brassaï, Weston, Brandt, Avedon...and Waldman. In this superb collection, Mr. Waldman puts the textured, gauzy style which has become his signature to exquisite use in celebration of American dance. "Dance is the art of movement through time. The most fugitive and fragile of arts, it disappears like mist on a windowpane," says Barnes. Capturing the fluidity and life of this moving art form on still film is incredibly demanding, if not impossible. But Waldman not only meets this challenge, he surpasses it by creating his own work of art while recording yet another. Working in a tiny studio, Max has managed to catch the great figures from the worlds of ballet and modern dance - Baryshnikov, Makarova, Farrell, Martins, Cunningham, Jamison, Nagy, and others - at that precious moment that seems to suggest both what precedes and what will follow. These are portraits not of static poses but of movement; the pictures, the artists - the dances - come alive. Max Waldman is, without question, an artist of tremendous style, forcefulness, and electricity. But as Clive Barnes concludes, "The pictures that follow need no words. They are a constant evocation of the harmonic elements of dance, and a constant reminder of what dance is all about - the fleeting images of remembered passion." -- from dust jacket.
Subjects: Portraits, Dancers