Steven Klein. Madonna, Hotel Glória, Rio de Janeiro, 2008. © Steven Klein. All Rights Reserved

Madonna and Anna Wintour on Steven Klein

Two long-standing collaborators share their love of this great photographer’s work

Even a casual admirer of contemporary photography will realise there’s something pretty special about our new Steven Klein book. This is the first comprehensive monograph of Klein’s photographs, whose subversive and powerful images have captivated viewers across the world for decades.

It contains era-defining images of stars such as Justin Timberlake, Kim Kardashian, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, as well as seminal fashion imagery, shot for the pages of i-D, W and Vogue among other titles.

It is also – and this is relatively unusual for so commercially successful a photographer – hugely cogent and consistent from an artistic point of view, while also seeming to offer glimpses into an almost limitless number of stories.

Take in the 282 images in this new book, and you leave with the impression of having borne witness to one, single, expansive and quite dark vision, as well as countless, incomplete narratives. The pictures leave an immediate impression, but also aren't easy to completely resolve. We can appreciate this, as idle admirers, but what qualities do Klein’s commissioning editors and collaborators admire? Remarkably similar ones, as it turns out.

“Great fashion photography not only understands the clothes and makes them look beautiful and of-the-moment,” Vogue’s editor-in-chief Anna Wintour told New York magazine in 2004, “but it also brings a twist that catches the eye and captures the imagination. In the case of Steven Klein, you give him a dress, and he will give you a girl in a dress with a robot in a garden. It’s clever, conceptual, and ultimately lyrical.” Klein’s long standing collaborator, Madonna, has been, if anything, more effusive.

Madonna and Anna Wintour on Steven Klein

“Beautiful and horrifying. Bloody and Magical. Mysterious and provocative. Ironic and repulsive. Violent and mischievous. Mesmerizing and sexually confrontational. Steven always pushes the envelope and invites the viewer to look deeper. I am in awe of Steven’s photography,” she said, with reference to their creative relationship. “I feel privileged and grateful to have had the chance to work with him over the past two decades. He is a true artist. An artist who is here to disturb the peace!♥️”

Madonna and Anna Wintour on Steven Klein

Steven Klein

To experience a little more of those disturbances, order a copy of Steven Klein here.

Steven KleinSteven Klein, edited and with an essay by Mark Holborn

As featured in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Vogue, New Yorker, The Guardian, and The Telegraph

The first and only monograph on Klein, whose hyperreal and sexually charged images have captivated viewers for 30 years

One of the fashion industry's most cunning provocateurs, photographer Steven Klein has created many of the most iconic images of our time. Klein's photographs blur the line between fiction and reality, resulting in stunning tableaux that only exist within his fantastical worlds. Although his images include some of the most photographed people in the world, they disappear into the narrative of Klein's imagination.

The book includes images originally published in magazines such as Interview, W, Vogue, Vogue Italia, Vogue Paris, Vogue Hommes, i-D, among many others, and iconic faces such as those of Madonna, Brad Pitt, Kim Kardashian, and Rihanna.

Klein has worked with notable clients including Balenciaga, Dolce & Gabbana, Tom Ford, Alexander McQueen, and Louis Vuitton. His work has also been exhibited at galleries and museums globally such as Deitch Projects, Gagosian, and the International Center of Photography, among others. Edited by author Mark Holborn, this first survey of Klein's work showcases his extravagant, hyperreal creations and illuminates his singular vision.

Specifications:

Format: Hardback
Size: 356 × 305 mm (14 × 12 in)
Pages: 464 pp
Illustrations: 282 illustrations
ISBN: 9781838665555

Mark Holborn is an editor and book designer who has worked internationally with such diverse artists as Lucian Freud, Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Issey Miyake, James Turrell, and William Eggleston. He edited the groundbreaking Full Moon, by Michael Light, documenting the nine Apollo moon missions, as well as books including Lucian Freud and Flora, both published by Phaidon.

New York Magazine Strategist's Most Giftable Coffee Table Books

‘As a new monograph illustrates, the reality-bending iconography of Steven Klein has never been more pertinent…Klein's photography and its urgent, challenging nature have become more timely.’ – British Vogue

‘Showcases the photographer's coolly carnal vision.’ – Vanity Fair

‘This compelling and provocative book … can easily give David Lynch a run for his money in the beautiful-yet-unsettling stakes.’ – American Vogue

'Subversiveness—the transgressive vision—might be old-school, but Klein hasn’t given it up. His monograph suggests that it’s still a force that can thrill and disturb.' – New Yorker