"George Hurrell was a master of light, elegance, and glamour," writes Sharon Stone in the foreword to the hefty, visually stunning George Hurrell's Hollywood. A former painter, Hurrell transformed the look of Hollywood portraiture with his photographs of hundreds of movie stars, including Greta Garbo, Clark Gable and Joan Crawford.
Stunning portraits, many of them full-page, appear beside Mark A. Vieira's exploration of Hurrell's life and career (expanded and updated from his original 1997 study). Vieira traces Hurrell's artistic development, his relationships with stars and movie studios and the scandals that later rocked his marriage and his career. To everyone's surprise, Hurrell eventually enjoyed a renaissance as his prints became collectors' items. Like the stars he photographed, Hurrell could be moody and difficult to work with, but his images--not only beautiful, but iconic--ensured his status as a Hollywood legend. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams