Customer Reviews

Sante D'Orazio A Private View: Photographs and Diary

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Actors, artists, models, musicians and athletes. Sante d'Orazio shot them all, and presents them here in a very clever collage of a photo diary spanning from 1985 to 1997. Mixed among the shots which made it to publication in the world's top fashion magazines is a wide array of attitude poses, candid moments, playful outtakes, and perhaps even a couple of photographic bloopers. What draws me to this book is the imagery of whirlwind travel, all-night parties, and romping photo sessions, contained in a just-thrown-together scrapbook fashion augmented by airplane tickets, foreign currency, watercolor painting and cryptic hand-written notes by the photographer himself. This guy leads a fun life, and has the pictures to prove it.

If you like models, you'll love this book, and d'Orazio's nude photos--some raw, some refined--are excellent. Sometimes it's hard to tell whether he snuck up on somebody, or if the setting was planned; nevertheless, it's all a blast. I'm intrigued by the picture of Kate Moss sitting sideways in an empty tub, smoking a cigarette and reading a book entitled "Help Your Husband Get Ahead."

The presentation of randomly-ordered contrasting moods--prim versus toussled, serene versus crazy, color versus black & white, staged versus candid--gives this book a variety that, to me, stays fresh and interesting. The b/w's outnumber the color shots, and are far better, in my opinion. I always appreciate a subject/date/locale photo index, which can be found in the back, although one must hunt through the thumbnail pix to find a specific shot because there are no page numbers anywhere. This book would be perfect if the format was slightly larger, and if the photos (i.e., events) were in chronological order, so as to catch the natural flow of a diary; however, these are only minor detractions. Keep flipping the pages . . . and enjoy.

when I first opened the book I was surprised to see that it was almost all photos not much text. I had purchased the book to gain insight into the world of fashion and I was not disapointed, instead of reading words I read the images and boy did they speak volumes. As a professional photographer myself,I have always been in awe of the power of an image.Without question Sante D`orazio is in a class by himself,He has the very rare innate ability to put the soul of his subjects on film.Anyone who is thinking about going into the field of fashion photography should spend time with this book.

If you've ever admired D'Orazio's work, you must have this book. After I read this, I felt as though I'd travelled into D'Orazio's glamorous world of fashion photography. His photographs have a sense of mood, each page has a "feel", I got lost for a couple of hours with it. A work of art, each photograph is like a painting. BUY THIS.

I recently recieved my copy of this book from amazon and upon first opening the package was disappointed in the size of the book. While extremely thick I was hoping for a larger format for the photos to be presented in. With that very very minor gripe aside, let me begin to try and put into words how well done this collection of photos is.

Sante D'orazio has had the oppurtunity to photograph some of the most beautiful as well as intriguing people on the planet, and has managed to capture them in their most natural seeming states. Wether it is a picture of Drew Barrymore on a tricycle, or Robert Deniro enjoying a cigar, every photo in the book is wonderfully done with such a personality to every photo that as a photographer makes me yearn to someday approach his skill. Rare is it I find a book of photography that the entire book interests me, as I often find some portions I enjoy a lot and others that bore me to tears, but this is a magnificent collection all the way through. If you are a fan of photography at all, please do yourself a favor and order this book, you will find yourself leafing through it over and over again in the future I promise.

I am a fashion photographer, and I bought this book as a reference to see how Sante D'Orazio (once an unknown name to me) worked. Upon opening the cover I saw some familiar pictures, Stephanie Seymour's famous Playboy features etc, and I didn't even know it was shot by Sante. His use of lighting, his composition and his obvious communication with the models and celebrities were ruthlessly revealed. Honestly, I would even buy his outtakes!

The sidenotes distracted, but some of them are actually quite funny (like they got locked up in Thailand doing a Vogue feature etc). There are also tiny amount of photographic info in the sidenotes, like the film used and exposure control etc.

The best thing I like is the way he captured the instants that could just pass without a trace. Note that the smoke from Seymour's mouth is still rising, and some other models were definitely shot while they were just 'jumping around'. It's very hard to capture the spontaneity of things, especially in fashion.

This book has taken a permanent place on my coffee table.

This book contains many nude female images that would probably earn the book an "R" rating if it were a motion picture.

This book focuses on most of the same models and images as are found in the more recent book (from August 2000), Sante D'Orazio: Photographs. The images that are chosen for this book are better than in that one and there are more of them here. But the photographs in this book are greatly hampered by being placed onto a too-small page format. Most two-page spreads are hopelessly compromised by the center fold. I graded the book down two stars for the poor format and design. What a waste of great talent!

I generally liked the idea of the book's format. Mr. D'Orazio gives you his best finished photographs from an assignment, surrounded by relevant scraps, contact sheets, and memorabilia pasted onto calendar pages. Some of these contact sheets are fascinating and add greatly to your understanding of the model.

In his brief comments, Francisco Clemente notes that the "picture will compose itself, speak for itself." And they do, but the contexts amplify the messages in important ways. After the assignment, Clemente feels that D'Orazio has pasted onto these diary pages the "backstage sweat of unreachable beauties, actors, models, rock stars, who, unpackaged, reveal at times an endearing anxiety . . . ."

For all of their campy, spontaneous feel, some will find the diary pages junky and unattractive.

Between his more recent book and this one, I prefer this one. The images are enough better that they slighter overcome the format advantages that that book has.

Here are my favorite images (I have noted the page numbers because the attribution is a little general in the book -- a lot of these are my favorite images in the more recent book, as well):

Kristen McMenamy, Shelter Island, New York, 1986, p. 28

Robert De Niro, St. Mortiz, Switzerland, 1992, p. 68

Frederique, St. Bart's, c. 1990, p. 85

Kim Basinger, Hollywood, California, 1993, p. 89

Johnny Depp, Hollywood, California, 1995, p. 110

Stephanie Seymour, St. Bart's, 1992, p. 116

Cindy Crawford, New York City, 1990, pp. 118-119

Cindy Crawford, Los Angeles, 1991, pp. 120-121

Christy Turlington, New Jersey, 1986, p. 124

Christy Turlington and Alexandra Valenti, Rome, Italy, 1997, p. 125

Naomi Campbell, New York City, 1991, p. 131

Linda Evangelista, Hollywood, California, 1995, p. 137

Claudia Schiffer, New York City, 1994, p. 141

Rachel Williams, Montauk, New York, 1991, p. 161

Pedro Abnodovar, New York City, 1991, p. 170

Linda Evangelista, St. Bart's, 1997, p. 185

Drew Barrymore, Hollywood, California, p. 220

Carmen Diaz, New York City, 1995, p. 231

Eva Herzigova, Miami, Florida, 1996, p. 238

Georgia Grenville, St. Bart's, 1996, p. 258

After you study these finished works and the candids that often preceded them, think about what is real and what is not. Which images are the actual person? Who are you, in reality? What image captures that best?

Be always open to giving and getting a private view.

A lot of these celebrity/photography books lack substance and are the same old same old, but this was packed with a lot of pictures I have never seen, and is really a feast for the eyes. I tend to buy a lot of these types of books, but this is the absolute best value for money - a great investment!

When I first looked through the pages of this book, I was stunned. I am a freelance photographer and was looking for a good book to get ideas from. I came acrossed this one and for once I have found someone that shoots the same style that I do. It's nice to be able to find this and use it a s aguide to get more ideas from. Outstanding images, creative...don't know what else to say without showing you the book.

Outstanding! Sante has an incredible eye and the images are gorgeous. Not only are there the high glamour but some wonderful warm potraits of celebrities. The nudes have beatuful flow to them and you don't want to put the book down. You want to turn the page to see the next incredible image. This is the first photo essay book I've ever given 5 stars to and I have no relations with anyone involved with this book. Buy it, it is a real treat! I only wish it was hard covered.

I found this book quite inspiring. The pictures are beautiful and tasteful, and it's interesting to be able to have a glimpse into a fashion photographer's life. If you are interesting in fashion it's a book you should definitely have.