About Face: Photography and the Death of the Portrait

by William A. Ewing, Nathalie Herschdorfer, Jean-Christophe Blaser

A new generation of artists challenge accepted notions of the photographic portrait in this provocative exploration of the face. Amongst those included are Aziz + Cucher, Valérie Belin, Nancy Burson, Rineke Dijkstra, Lee Friedlander, Inez van Lamsweerde/Vinoodh Matadin, Orlan, Martin Parr, Thomas Ruff, and Gillian Wearing.

87 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

William A. Ewing is a Canadian art historian specializing in photography. He served as the director of the Musée de l'Élysée in Lausanne from 1996 to 2010 and has been a research professor in the art history department at the University of Geneva, where he has focused on the history of photography. He has curated numerous international exhibitions and authored several books on the photographic representation of the human body. He is also the founder of the Todi Circle, an annual think tank on photography held in Todi, Italy. His publications include The Body, Le Siècle du Corps, and Edward Steichen: Carnet Mondain.