Customer Reviews

Yves Saint Laurent: 40 Years of Creation

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The photography is decent the majority of the time. There are some really weird photos where you can't see a thing, and there is more than one occasion where there is nudity. I would not call this great photography, and I wish it had been more focused on the couture and not the models.

The title of this book is Yves Saint Laurent: 40 Years of Creation, but the main focus of the book is the designer's work from the 1990s. There is very little from earlier. This was fine with me as I prefer the work from the 90s, but, if you want a true retrospective on ALL his work, this book is not it.

I was very disappointed in this book. I expected a deluxe photographic retrospective on the work of one of the greatest fashion designers of this century. Instead, the focus of the book is on "fashion photography" and not on YSL's work. The photos are "artistic," which means they are often murky, blurry, dark, weird, and even violent (especially two Terry Richardson photos of "dead" models--one made up to look as though she were slashed to death).

This book will not satisy anyone who wants a good look at YSL's output over the past 40 years. If you are a fan of "fashion photography," you might like this book. If you are a fan of YSL, you will not. I wish I hadn't bought it.

What a good idea to have shown the relation between this great designer and those great photographers since he was the first couturier that understood the power of photography in fashion. What I liked the most is the mixture between those young artists and their predecessors. I recommend this book to anyone who loves fashion, photography and the way these two interact.