Cyclops [Hardcover]

Albert Watson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1997

Published to great fanfare in the fall of 1994, the original $75, edition of Cyclops completely sold out of its first printing -- and has since become a coveted item in the collector's market. Now this astonishing collection of photographs -- which range from Tupac Shakur posing with a pistol to Kate Moss modeling in the nude, from sailors in Beijing to convicts in Louisiana, from Elvis Presley's Colt .45 to a goat's-foot fetish from Marrakesh -- is at last available in a small-format edition that will appeal to an even broader audience. With its high-impact images and sumptuous quadratone reproduction, this new incarnation of Cyclops is sure to become the year's most sought-after photography book.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Style is substance in Watson's photography--the style of fashion, faux crime, hypersex, and celebrity. There is a slightly jagged edge to his take on the world, but it is an edge safely dulled by a carefully cultivated aestheticism that makes the pictures go down easy. That said, Watson is undeniably a powerful magazine photographer whose darkly beautiful images (reproduced herein by Agfa's new CristalRaser technology) glisten with seductively described surfaces. His subjects range from travel photos of Marrakesh to celebrity portraits to fashion fiction (in a lengthy "Malcolm X Fashion Story"). Interspersed--and perhaps constituting the book's central thread--are strange object-portraits of Moroccan fetishes and other, more contemporary fetish objects. The crazy quilt of typefaces used for the captions and mercifully short text might be seen as avant-garde, or more cynically as the computer work of a designer with multiple personality disorder--as style as substance, in any case. Gretchen Garner --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Bulfinch; 1st Small Format Ed edition (May 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0821223887
• ISBN-13: 978-0821223888
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #787,399 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ultimate Black & White Images, December 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Cyclops (Hardcover)

Albert Watson's images in this book are quite simply some of the best images of Black & White photography in any book! They are technically perfect and arrestingly beautiful. His images are powerful, moving, creative, and always well composed. Furthermore, the printing in this book is one of the best I've ever seen.

If you appriciate masterful black & white images you would probably be happy with this book even if you had paid 5 times what this costs!

This book is truly a must-have for anyone who appriciates great photography

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Engrossing., April 26, 2002

By 

Kat Rahmat (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cyclops (Hardcover)

When I first saw the book, I was transfixed. I must have spent quite a number of hours going through the pages, standing up, the world dissolving around me. My particular favorite is one picture of Gary Oldman lying in a coffin. It captured him perfectly. I don't know much about photography, but the beauty of his works is that it can be understood and loved by anyone - there is a human association within every shot. For a while I was reluctant to buy it - the price was a bit too much for me, but I kept on returning to the bookstore to see it, taking a half an hour bus ride each time at the other side of the city. I grew restless when I didn't take the ritual visit. Eventually I did get it - and I finally feel complete. He captured perfection.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars still and fashion photography re-invented, August 17, 2005

By 

N. E. Rocha (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cyclops (Hardcover)

If you're looking for a book of a photographer who single-mindedly captures fashion, portraiture, landscape and still life flawlessly with his unique style, Albert Watson's Cyclops is the book for you. Included in the book is a brief overview of Watson the man who since birth has had only sight in one eye and has been given the gift of dazzling every other eye known to man. In the interior you can indulge yourself with black and white photographs that can instantly give rise to a feeling of sensuality, pain and pleasure. Whether it be celebrities or artifacts Watson manipulates the subject to create a vision only he can see and we can enjoy and recognize as his signature style. The book is a bit small but beautifully made.