Chuck Close, photographer /

Westerbeck, author of the informative introductory essay, invites the reader into the world of Chuck Close, beautifully distilling this vital painter's lifelong fascination with photography. It is Close's work that really hypnotizes in this long overdue examination of his photographic practice. Close has sustained an intensely profound exploration of what it means to make a photograph and intersects his obsession with the human face, portraiture, and self-portraiture with the intimate act of photographing a human subject. This volume covers Close's decades-long engagement with photography. It ranges from his earliest photographic work in the 1960s-70s through the 1980s when he began expanding his photographic practice by utilizing a variety of old and new lens-based technologies, from the historic daguerreotype process to the large-format Polaroid camera and the hologram. This monograph is beautifully designed with exceptional color and black-and-white reproductions and includes a useful chronology of Close's prolific career. This is a must read for anyone wanting to fully grasp the development of Close's artistic innovations that have so dramatically influenced contemporary art. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels. --Judy Natal, Columbia College Chicago