Customer Reviews

I am Iman

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

hmmm...just received this yesterday and read through it. Beautifully presented book with unusual editorial and stylising quirks in its presentation. If you are looking for a book that will give you meaty information on Iman and her outlook on life, this is not the one. There is some detail about her early life, but then it explodes into pictures and interviews and different short pieces on the essence of being black and fashion etc. To be honest, most of the subject matter is merely flirted with rather than explored.

The pictures and photographs are amazing and it is a great pictorical legacy for the supermodel that is Iman.

It is a book you will read cover to cover in 2 hours - and something you can go back to, and flick through it again.

But I'm sorry to say I didn't think there was much substance

This book, although brief, is a better than average book by a model.

Iman adds more than just the basics; she provides her insights into what it means to her to be a black model as opposed to how society views it.

It should not be expected to be an in-depth biography. Iman describes important events in her life: her early life, leaving her country, entering the modeling world. She does not tell many minor stories or go into excruciating details about why she feels the way she does about certain things or why specific people were chosen to add to her book.

This book is that of an artist. The comments from friends and colleagues add to the pages and they way they are displayed is artistic and grabbing.

The photographs, many which are nude or "artistic nudes," are beautiful and abundant.

Overall, this is a book that people interested in models should read.

While I found the pictures to be wonderful. I found the text to be so much more. Being a person of color I could relate to much of what is written here. Yes the West's perception of skin color needs to be addressed. People of all ages need to read this book for this matter alone. It is not preachy or self involved as some have said. It discusses more than fashion and addresses all of us. Beauty is the tip of the iceberg here and one must read the book and look a little deeper. Not just at Iman but ourselves and each other as well.

If beauty is the business of good looks, as this book claims, then Iman dares to ask the question: whose business is it? Answering that question, or at least trying, makes this book much more important than a quick flip through its classic photos would indicate. Iman's own history, it seems, indicates that centuries-old Eurocentric conventions about what is "fashionable" are now being confronted by the pure demographics of change. As she points out in one of the book's autobiographical sections, the NEW "girl next door" is likely to be Asian or Latina or black. When Iman arrived on the scene in 1975, black models were just beginning to get a foot in the door, but she was a sign of a coming revolution. The message of this book, and there is one, is that this is a state of permanent revolution: perhaps never again will there be "standard" of beauty.
This playful, beautifully-made book throws the question - whose business is it? - right back at us. The answer, I guess, is you and me, the people who buy books from Amazon, the "hegemony." We validate good looks by changing our own clothes to suit an idea. We validated Iman. So then, of course, the challenge: why isn't there even more room for different ethnicities, different body shapes, different styles of clothes? Is there only room for one Iman?
Okay, all that is serious and all, but clothing is also very un-serious. For whatever reason that she became the first black African to become a supermodel, she grabbed hold of that ephemeral, life-affirming pop culture and squeezed it for all the fun it's worth. Jonathan Barnbrook's design is perfect to handle the politics of dancing, and walks a line between fun and fury that is in your face and yet rewards every subsequent reading. Though the essays by bell hooks and others are not terribly academic, I have a feeling this book will be revisited in years to come as being a first step at trying to understand a new global perspective on beauty.

Interesting pictures. Very few stories. I was hoping for a better book from IMAN

I Am Iman is a wonderful book. That it is wonderful to look at won't come as a surprise to anyone. What is a suprise, visually, though, are many of the photographs, all chosen by Iman: of course there are plenty of traditional beauty and fashion images testifying to Iman's career as a singular catwalk and photographic model. (These images make up a fascinating archive for anyone interested in photography, fashion, social history, studio 54, sex, gender, high fashion and race). Much more remarkable, however, are the riskier choices of images. This is not a book which wastes any time at the alter of traditional beauty. Iman shows herself every which way: nude, pregnant, dressed up, and naked, fleshy and lovely.

The book is worth getting for the iconic photograph by Annie Leibovitz of two generations of black models all sitting together. But do not miss the amazing collaboration between Sandra Bernhard and Iman: this shows Iman as a performer unconstrained by vanity (although,it turns out that she looks great dressed up like a drag queen), and it is this Iman - unabashed, unashamed and upfront that is presented again and again throughout this book, both in its images and in its writing.

Yes, the essays by David Bowie, Ingrid Sischey and Bell Hooks are great, but the riveting writing comes from Iman herself. She is an honest and unpretentious writer and she certainly has a lot to say and many stories to tell. She does not put a gloss on any thing that she encountereed or did over her remarkable career, and though the book is not a tell all (thank god), Iman is not shy about sharing regrets, mistakes and ambivalent feelings.

This is not a series of puff pieces about a celebrity. Far from it! Iman's voice comes across as both proud and self-deprecating and most of all, as someone with a wonderful sense of the absurd. The book is an amazing design - I read that Jonathan Barnbrook also designed Damien Hirst's catalogues, and that would make sense, because the book is risky. There is not one single lazy page in the whole volumne. Iman once again has not gone for the banal. This book is a MUST for any library, but better than that, you'll want to keep it on your bedside table.

A stunning visual poem; an intellectual consideration on the impact of race on standards of beauty; a fantastic homage to one of the world's enduring beauties; a must-have for the Iman fan, or the appreciator of the beauty of black women.

For those who are fans of Iman and the fashion-system which created the myth of her, this book will be a delicious read. From her first beginnings and exile from Somalia, her native country, and her subsequent "discovery" by the great modeling agency Wilhemina in New York City, the book takes us through the entire gamut of just what set Iman apart from other models of the day and succeeds in capturing the magic of her runway and print style. Especially for those of us who are "fashionistas of the 80's", Iman's book will bring back a few heartwarming memories of the era, in spite of the initial racism and ugly side of the industry most models of color inevitably seem to experience. The myth of Iman is dissected, the real truth of her rise to stardom is disclosed, and the woman and mother she has become today is acclamated. The book read like a real life fairytale.

Tell lots about Iman. I bought for an african model friend of mine..Even tho she was too young to know her..very nice pictures..

This book I first read at my local library and fell in love with it. Not only does it have beautiful, colorful pics, it also somewhat empowers African American women in the fashion industry. Over the recent years the fashion shows and some of the fashion designers have made a "comfortable seat" casting white models. This book is a refreshing to read and look at the fashion industry through Iman eyes. My favorite part of this book is a photo spread of all the popular African American models togther. Good read and beautiful photos!