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PETER BEARD: SCRAPBOOKS FROM AFRICA AND BEYOND
(BEARD, PETER). Bohn, Guillaume, Edward Behr & Peter Beard. New York: Empire Editions, 2007. First Edition. 4to. Boards with Pastedown. Photography Monograph. As New/No Jacket - As Issued. 112pp, profusely illustrated in color and b&w. "Peter Beard: Scrapbooks From Africa and Beyond" is a colorful and definitive portrait of a man of all seasons, a man in love with people and places, a passionate man, an obsessed man constantly passing from one dimension to another. The book and its fifty-four minute documentary film follow the inner drama of one of the great creative spirits. Like the colorful marginalia of the notebooks he's kept since his youth, it is collage drawn from life itself. It reveals a mixture of seriousness and wit, and rests upon Peter Beard's skills as a storyteller. A person cannot experience the intensity of life such as Beard has - suffer such scrapes and bruises associated with the adventurer's life - without being lively company. A series of incisive and never before published interviews by British journalist Edward Behr form the backbone of "Scrapbooks From Africa and Beyond" that takes viewers to three continents. Beard lives in the present and here we are offered a rare experience to observe how he captures the essence of each moment. Marked by a sense of intimacy and sincerity, the book shows Beard at work shooting nudes and fashion, with his family and friends, the native Kenyans he lived near and works with or just one-on-one, in candid and revealing scenes that underscore his life's work. Here Beard's adventures and the substance of his work are united as one. The iconic photographs of his legendary past are revisited and for the first time we read and hear the stories about the making of Beard's first book, "The End of the Game", his appearance in the cult underground film "Hallelujah the Hills," his fortuitous meeting with British painter Francis Bacon, and his youthful acquaintance with Karen Blixen. Beard's epic notebooks, bound with ink, blood, photographs and the detritus of life on the road are matched here by his recollections of the remnants of Kenya's colonial past." A brand new, pristine example of this fascinating book and accompanying documentary DVD still in the publisher's shrinkwrap. 0-9779008-4-3 Inventory Number: 026346