Author: The Portraits of Beowulf Sheehan

by Beowulf Sheehan, Salman Rushdie (Foreword)

A beautiful and moving collection of photographs by Beowulf Sheehan, whose work captures the essence of 200 of our most prominent writers, historians, journalists, playwrights, and poets.

Beowulf Sheehan is considered to be his generation's foremost literary portrait photographer, having made portraits of the literary luminaries of our time across the globe, from Roxane Gay to Masha Gessen, Patti Smith to Zadie Smith, Karl Ove Knausgaard to J.K. Rowling, and Jonathan Franzen to Toni Morrison.

In Authors Sheehan presents the most insightful, intimate, and revealing portraits of these artists made in his studio, in their homes, in shopping malls and concert halls, on rooftops and in parking lots, on the beach and among trees, surrounded by flowers and in clock towers. Following an enlightening foreword by Salman Rushdie, Beowulf Sheehan shares an essay offering insights in the poignant and memorable moments he experienced while making these portraits.

A treasure gift for readers and lovers of portrait photography, Authors is the only book of its kind to appear in more than a decade.

Genres: Photography, Nonfiction, Art

256 pages, Hardcover

Published October 9, 2018

About the author

Raised in South Florida and abroad, Beowulf Sheehan studied photography at New York University and the International Center of Photography. His childhood love of stories in books and music grew into an adulthood love of storytellers in the arts, entertainment, and humanities. Beowulf makes portraits, communicates ideas, and shares the stories of unique and compelling artists and figures who impact society and culture. Among the striking creative voices he has photographed are Bono, Stephen Colbert, Hugh Jackman, John Oliver, Yoko Ono, ?uestlove, the RZA, and Ai Weiwei. Published in the likes of Esquire, The New Yorker, Newsweek, Time, Vanity Fair, and Vogue, his work has been exhibited at institutions such as the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Dostoevsky Museum, Museum of Chinese in America, Museum of the City of New York, and Smithsonian Nationals Museum of African American History and Culture.

A beautiful and moving collection of photographs by today's foremost literary portrait photographer, AUTHOR: The Portraits of Beowulf Sheehan captures the essence of more than 200 writers, historians, journalists, playwrights, and poets from 35 countries, from Roxane Gay to Masha Gessen, Patti Smith to Zadie Smith, Karl Ove Knausgaard to J.K. Rowling, and Jonathan Franzen to Toni Morrison. Following an enlightening foreword by Salman Rushdie, Beowulf Sheehan shares an essay offering insights into the poignant and memorable moments he experienced while making these portraits. A treasured gift for readers and lovers of portrait photography, AUTHOR is the only book of its kind to appear in more than a decade.

Partial proceeds from AUTHOR will benefit BookUp, a program of the National Book Foundation to inspire reading by students in underserved communities across the country. Reading isn't just fundamental. It is a vital gateway to a successful life.

Reviews

[Dave Cullen]

Beowulf Sheehan is the most lauded author portrait artist currently working. It's for a niche audience, and as an author, I bought it almost as a How To--or How I Might--book for ideas and inspiration on my upcoming photo session. (Which will produce the photo for my new book jacket, as well as in every publication, website, social posting about me, etc., for the next several years.)

I can take some pretty horrendous photos, so very nervous. I didn't like all the photos, or even most, but there were some really stellar portraits to my taste. Tagging a great number of them, and then taking pix on my phone and sorting/ranking them really helped me home in on what was working for me, and what i wanted.

I recommend this for anyone in the biz, or who needs to get a photo portrait done.

[Kasa Cotugno]

What a wonderful gift. This was given to me based on my love of both reading and photography. Beowulf Sheehan (isn't that a great name?) inhabits a distinctive niche, which he explains in the prologue -- his subject matter almost exclusively consists of authors. Most are beautiful portraits, in which you can almost see the wheels spinning within. In some, the personality jumps out (as with Dave Eggars' puckishness and humor), and some employing a serendipitous background, as with the twisted vines behind Val McDermid's head. This is a book to pick up, leaf through and enjoy again and again. There are so many here unfamiliar to me, thanks to his presence at, say, book fairs in Melbourne, but which introduce me to authors I might fine intriguing. As I try to see authors in person as often as possible (my husband's nephews call me "the author stalker," which I've put on my license plate), this book resonated on a personal level, showing how well the giver of this gift knows me.

[David Abrams]

Photographer Beowulf Sheehan has gathered his best photos of, as the title says, authors he's been lensing for more than 10 years. As someone who himself was once photographed by Mr. Sheehan, I can attest to his warmth, his friendliness, his way of putting the most nervous subject (like me) at ease. In the photos collected in this book, we can see the humanity of his subjects--the way they feel about themselves, their work, and the world shines through their eyes and the set of their mouth. For the moment of a shutter click, a curtain pulls aside--a slackening of the skin, an unknotting of the brow, a fresh blink of moisture across the eyes--and we see inside.

[Esperanza]

A stunning collection of photographs of authors, shot by photographer Beowulf Sheehan. Many authors in the book I had not heard of; there is a handy reference guide in the back of the book which lists the authors and their collected works. Several of the portraits in the book are in black and white, while others are in vivid colors. As an author myself, it makes me think about how I'd like to shoot my next series of author portraits for my own books.

[Marc]

Beowulf is proud of being a, or the, writers' photographer. Of course I don't want to deny him his niche, but I don't think writers make better models than other people. In fact, some of them are pretty boring. Most of the ones I do not like are black and white headshots. But then again, some pictures are just brilliant, like Chad Harbachs. A tiny head before a backdrop of ivy.

[Kate]

See the faces behind your favorite books. Get up close and personal with today’s top authors, captured off the page in all their vivaciousness. Find out what Arthur Miller called the photographer when he telephoned to schedule a session with Miller’s wife. Explore all this and more when you check out Author by Beowulf Sheehan.

[Emily Duchon]

gorgeous photos. a brief intro to the author or a quote from one of their books would have been a nice touch.

[Robin]

You can see his desire to capture the nature of each person in these pictures.

[E]

Huge fan of many of these authors & the portrait work capturing their humanity

Got a signed used copy of this book from Jabberwocky in Newburyport for $12! What a find