Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Between 1928 and 1942 George Hurrell photographed all the great Hollywood stars. Perhaps his most notable collaboration was with Joan Crawford: a pair of before and after photographs reveal the extent of her debt to Hurrell's retouching techniques. This book presents 275 examples of his work.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

George Hurrell was the most sought-after celebrity photographer in Hollywood's Golden Era. He had total control of light, the complete confidence of his subjects, and a storied reputation for making the ordinary beautiful and the beautiful dazzling. The Chapman Collection is one of the most extensive archives of Hurrell's photographs in the world. A close friend of the photographer, Vieira has carefully selected 275 of the images from the collection for this book. The selections leave the reader with a reassuring sense of familiarity with the hundreds of stars, who are remembered here as the film studios planned‘as people who amazed us and were bigger than life. Vieira has collected and arranged the stars in this volume in an admiring way, turning Hurrell's incredible ability to merge glamour, creative lighting, star quality, and imaginative posing into a timeless book. Recommended for general collections.‘David Bryant, New Canaan P.L., Ct. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

George Hurrell (1904^-92) made a career of taking sumptuous photographs of beautiful people during Hollywood's glamorous heyday, when beautiful people sincerely tried to look beautiful, and no heroin chic or kinderwhore posing was to be found. Vieira's coffee-table book presents some of Hurrell's best work in glorious, glossy black-and-white. Though the great female stars predominate, Vieira presents many notable shots of male stars; for example, a wonderful profile of Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and, wonderfully facing it, another shot of young Doug, this time posing with Fairbanks pere. The text imparts Hurrell's technique and approach crisply. "I was trying to get character into my work. That's why I went sharp because there was no reason for that thing to be fuzzy," Vieira reports the master saying. Primarily intended to assist in the mass-marketing of Hollywood movies, these portraits probably are, in some degree, unintentional art. That they are now appreciated as genuine art and presented and documented in such a lovely collection is cause for appreciation and celebration. --Mike Tribby