by Laura Wilson
First published 2022
Photographer Laura Wilson rejected the standard author headshots that populate book jackets. She believed these formal portraits missed the essence of who writers really are. Wilson set out to create something different: intimate photographic essays that reveal the personalities behind famous literary names. Her camera follows thirty-eight internationally celebrated authors through their ordinary moments. Margaret Atwood tends her garden. Tim O'Brien entertains his family with magic tricks. Louise Erdrich chats with customers in her Minneapolis bookstore. The collection includes portraits of Gabriel García Márquez, Zadie Smith, Colm Tóibín, Rachel Cusk, Edwidge Danticat, David McCullough, Haruki Murakami, Carlos Fuentes, and Seamus Heaney. Wilson drew inspiration from the classic photo essays that Life magazine once published. Her 220 duotone images capture writers as human beings rather than literary icons. The book explores how photography and writing both deal with memory, transformation, and the urge to preserve fleeting moments.
Genres: biography, art, writing, non-fiction, 21st-century, photography
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: character-study, portrait
Setting: Minneapolis
Period: 21st-century
264 pages · Hardcover · Yale University Press