Face to Face: The Photographs of Camilla McGrath
A revelatory collection of behind-the-scenes photographs of celebrities and cultural icons—from Joan Didion to the Rolling Stones to Nancy Pelosi. Featuring short essays from Fran Lebowitz, Harrison Ford, and more.
"A treasure trove of celebrities at play in the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s."
—PEOPLE
Camilla Pecci Blunt, a nonprofessional photographer who grew up between Italy and New York, was well placed to forge the path she did. Her mother was passionate about the arts, took photographs, painted, and collected artists around her, and had galleries in Rome and New York. The more than six hundred photographs in this book from the 1950s to the early 1990s capture our cultural icons in casual, playful moments.
After she married Earl McGrath in 1963, their homes--first in New York and then in Los Angeles--became gathering places for a wholly unexpected mix of people that Camilla documented in these surprising, in-the-moment photographs: Jackie Kennedy, Jerome Robbins, Sammy Davis Jr., Calvin and Kelly Klein, Nancy Pelosi, Dianne Feinstein, Bruce Chatwin, Andy Warhol, Larry Rivers, Jean Tinguely, Frank O'Hara, Jasper Johns, Allen Ginsberg, the Rolling Stones, Bryan Ferry, Bette Midler, Jerry Hall, Keith Haring, Linda Ronstadt, Jerry Brown, Sharon Tate, Roman Polanski, John Waters, Joan Didion, Angelia Huston, Robert Graham, David Hockney, Michael Crichton, and Barbra Streisand, among many others.
Andrea di Robilant's essay, along with memories from Griffin Dunne, Vincent Fremont, Harrison Ford, Fran Lebowitz, and Jann Wenner, reveal the backstory of this irresistible look at the larger-than-life cultural figures of our time as you have never seen them.
"A treasure trove of celebrities at play in the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s."
—PEOPLE
Camilla Pecci Blunt, a nonprofessional photographer who grew up between Italy and New York, was well placed to forge the path she did. Her mother was passionate about the arts, took photographs, painted, and collected artists around her, and had galleries in Rome and New York. The more than six hundred photographs in this book from the 1950s to the early 1990s capture our cultural icons in casual, playful moments.
After she married Earl McGrath in 1963, their homes--first in New York and then in Los Angeles--became gathering places for a wholly unexpected mix of people that Camilla documented in these surprising, in-the-moment photographs: Jackie Kennedy, Jerome Robbins, Sammy Davis Jr., Calvin and Kelly Klein, Nancy Pelosi, Dianne Feinstein, Bruce Chatwin, Andy Warhol, Larry Rivers, Jean Tinguely, Frank O'Hara, Jasper Johns, Allen Ginsberg, the Rolling Stones, Bryan Ferry, Bette Midler, Jerry Hall, Keith Haring, Linda Ronstadt, Jerry Brown, Sharon Tate, Roman Polanski, John Waters, Joan Didion, Angelia Huston, Robert Graham, David Hockney, Michael Crichton, and Barbra Streisand, among many others.
Andrea di Robilant's essay, along with memories from Griffin Dunne, Vincent Fremont, Harrison Ford, Fran Lebowitz, and Jann Wenner, reveal the backstory of this irresistible look at the larger-than-life cultural figures of our time as you have never seen them.
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Community Reviews
As a female photographer I am always on the lookout for fellow female photographers who I have not heard of before, and upon starting my very deep dive in the past few years I can confirm there are very many that rarely are spoken of. So when I read the synopsis of Face to Face I knew this was a book I had to pick up.
This collection consists of essays written by Camilla McGrath’s famous friends (among them being Indiana Jones himself, Harrison Ford) and photographs Camilla took herself over a period of 5 decades which, according to Andrea di Robilant’s kickoff essay, are painstakingly ordered by date and subject. The work itself is a veritable who’s who of artistic and political royalty and I found myself spending an extra amount of time scanning the faces of group photos picking out who I knew and who I didn’t. I was most excited to see photos of famed female photographer (and a personal hero) Annie Leiobvitz among the collection and relaxed images of Mick Jagger in ways I’ve seldom seen him photographed.
The photography was fascinating and I found myself resonating with some of the anecdotes Camilla’s friends had to say about her. The discussion of how she brought her camera with her (a nikon, which is also my camera of choice) everywhere, natural light was essential to her work and that she had a way of capturing the essence of a person aligned so strongly with my own personal philosophy with my own personal work that I felt closer to her as an artist - and I didn’t even know who this woman was before cracking open this book.
While the prose wasn’t amazing, it held character which lends itself to the type of company Camilla and Earl kept and allowed us a look into what spending time with the McGrath’s was really like. The description of the parties was a peek into a different version of the bohemian art scene we’re so used to reading about.
In short, Face to Face is a quick read with fascinating photographs from the period that any photographer should read at one point.
This collection consists of essays written by Camilla McGrath’s famous friends (among them being Indiana Jones himself, Harrison Ford) and photographs Camilla took herself over a period of 5 decades which, according to Andrea di Robilant’s kickoff essay, are painstakingly ordered by date and subject. The work itself is a veritable who’s who of artistic and political royalty and I found myself spending an extra amount of time scanning the faces of group photos picking out who I knew and who I didn’t. I was most excited to see photos of famed female photographer (and a personal hero) Annie Leiobvitz among the collection and relaxed images of Mick Jagger in ways I’ve seldom seen him photographed.
The photography was fascinating and I found myself resonating with some of the anecdotes Camilla’s friends had to say about her. The discussion of how she brought her camera with her (a nikon, which is also my camera of choice) everywhere, natural light was essential to her work and that she had a way of capturing the essence of a person aligned so strongly with my own personal philosophy with my own personal work that I felt closer to her as an artist - and I didn’t even know who this woman was before cracking open this book.
While the prose wasn’t amazing, it held character which lends itself to the type of company Camilla and Earl kept and allowed us a look into what spending time with the McGrath’s was really like. The description of the parties was a peek into a different version of the bohemian art scene we’re so used to reading about.
In short, Face to Face is a quick read with fascinating photographs from the period that any photographer should read at one point.
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