Jack Robinson on Show: Portraits 1958-72

2011 | Art, Photography & Fashion

When Jack Robinson died in 1997, few people knew that the very private artist, who lived in a tiny apartment in mid-town Memphis, had once been acclaimed as one of the great fashion and portrait photographers of the sixties and early seventies, as highly regarded as his contemporaries Irving Penn and Richard Avedon. The roll-call of subjects Jack photographed in his career reads like a definitive who's who of the period. From Vidal Sassoon to Michael Caine, from Tina Turner to The Who, from Tom Wolfe to Lauren Bacall. Robinson photographed not only actors and entertainers but the writers, artists, fashion designers and politicians who shaped the cultural landscape of the sixties and early seventies. Rarely have his subjects - some of the most photographed individuals in the world - appeared so unguarded and at ease in front of the lens. A favourite of legendary Vogue editor Diana Vreeland, Robinson's photographs appeared over 500 times in the magazine's "People are Talking About" section and "Vogue's own Boutique". In late 1972, he left New York for Memphis and abandoned his photographic career for good.

This impeccably produced book showcases 150 unforgettable images selected from the vast archive that makes up his extraordinary body of work. It re-establishes Jack Robinson's reputation as a master photographer of one of the twentieth-century's defining periods.

George Perry (Author)