Vanity Fair : the portraits

From Edward Steichen and Cecil Beaton to Annie Leibovitz and Mario Testino, "Vanity Fair", "The Portraits" celebrates 95 years of photographic history, with classic images commissioned and published first in the pages of "Vanity Fair".

These portraits have become, and continue to convey, the iconic likenesses of the best-known figures from the worlds of art, film, music, sports, business and politics. "Vanity Fair: The Portraits" traces the cultural history of the 20th century and its leading personalities in the pages of a magazine that helped usher in the modern age and which has itself become a benchmark of modern achievement.

This book brings together more than 300 photographs from the two incarnations of "Vanity Fair" and offers an authoritative roster of fame, talent, and glamour.

The first era-from 1913 to 1936-is dominated by figures from the Jazz Age and covers subjects drawn from art, dance, music, film, and world affairs, including luminaries such as Pablo Picasso, Amelia Earhart, Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn. The second era - from the reincarnation of "Vanity Fair" in 1983 up to the present day - includes Hollywood stars as well as writers, athletes, style icons, and titans of business and politics, with portraits of Robert De Niro, Arthur Miller, Madonna, Margaret Thatcher, and Rupert Murdoch among many others. "Vanity Fair: The Portraits" - featuring an introduction by "Vanity Fair's" editor Graydon Carter and essays by Christopher Hitchens, columnist for the magazine; David Friend, "Vanity Fair's" editor of creative development; and Terence Pepper, curator of photographs, National Portrait Gallery, London - taps the energy of the magazine that once promised to 'ignite a dinner party at fifty yards' and reveals why its pages have become the culture's grandest showcase for photographic iconography.

Published to accompany the 25th anniversary of "Vanity Fair" as well as a major touring exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, 14 June-21 September 2008, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, USA, 26 October 2008-1 March 2009 and the Portrait Gallery Canberra, Australia, 12 June-30 August 2009.