PETER BEARD: FIFTY YEARS OF PORTRAITS texts by David Fahey and Anthony Haden-Guest.

Arena Editions, 1999, First edition, 205 pp., 8 1/4" X 10 1/4", Faux leather boards with tipped in photograph.

Fine

"Photography, collage, diary. For 50 years controversial and acclaimed photographic adventurer Beard has been using these tools to chronicle the massive sea change the world is undergoing. This book surveys his work, ranging from his early African photographs to his most recent large-scale multimedia collages. Since publishing his seminal and unflinching The End of the Game in 1963, Beard has continued to create a barrage of works. Using his "dictionary of images"Aa huge collection of media including found objects, photographs of people and of animal carcasses, text excerpts, drawings, and bloodAhe has developed a powerful lexicon regarding death, nature, technology, information overload, time, population, celebrity, and objectification. His brutally frank works are crowded yet reveal a textured and complicated construction that is at once oblique, disturbing, and ironic. He challenges our preconceptions of beauty and composition while expanding the concept of picture making."