Sheila Metzner

the long version

This volume presents more than 300 photographs accompanied by the ground-breaking artist's enchanting stories of the inspirations behind her critically acclaimed work. The first female art director at Doyle Dane Bernbach advertising agency in the 1960s, Sheila Metzner became a photographer while raising five children. In 1978, one of Metzner's portraits became the hit of a controversial exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art; gallery shows and assignments from Alexander Liberman at Vogue soon followed. At a time when Avedon, Penn, and Piel commandeered its pages, Metzner became the first female photographer to receive steady work from Vogue. Always pushing artistic boundaries, Metzner's distinctive photographic aesthetic soon positioned her as a contemporary master not only in fashion photography but also in fine art, portraiture, still life, and landscape. With memoir-like vignettes that accompany her photos, this book is a deeply personal look at the artist's career as a peer to fashion and film luminaries such as Diane Arbus and Richard Avedon.