The Passionate Observer: Photographs by Carl Van Vechten, Used [Paperback]

Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964) was a starstruck Midwesterner who led a colorful life, a social butterfly who established himself as a music and theater critic before enjoying success as a novelist in the 1920s. When the Leica revolutionized photography in the early 1930s, the amateur shutterbug embraced the rapid-fire 35mm camera and reinvented himself as a celebrity portraitist. Keith Davis discusses Van Vechten's evocative work in crisp, distinctive prose that is the perfect complement to the artist's dynamic black-and-white images. Gertrude Stein, Bessie Smith, George Gershwin, Frida Kahlo, and Paul Robeson are among the personalities who paraded through his makeshift apartment studio.

The Passionate Observer: Photographs by Carl Van Vechten, Used [Paperback]