When Benedikt Taschen asked the most important portrait photographer working today, Annie Leibovitz, to collect her pictures in a SUMO-sized book, she was intrigued by the challenge. The project took several years to develop and when it was finally published in 2014, it weighed in at 26 kg (57 pounds). This incredible collection is now available in an accessible XXL book format. Leibovitz drew on more than 40 years of work, starting with the photojournalism she did for Rolling Stone magazine in the 1970s through the conceptual portraits she made for Vanity Fair and Vogue. She selected iconic images-such as John Lennon and Yoko Ono entwined in a last embrace-as well as portraits that had rarely, if ever, been seen before. The Annie Leibovitz SUMO covered political and cultural history, from Queen Elizabeth II and Richard Nixon to Laurie Anderson and Lady Gaga. "What I had thought of initially as a simple process of imagining what looked good big, what photographs would work in a large format, became something else," Leibovitz says. "The book is very personal, but the narrative is told through popular culture. It's not arranged chronologically and it's not a retrospective. It's more like a roller coaster." Fans of Leibovitz and her many celebrated subjects can now enjoy that same roller coaster ride for themselves with this unlimited edition.

"I would hope that I am one of a kind." -Rodney Smith Mystery and manners, romance and fun-the sophisticated compositions and stylish characters in the extraordinary pictures of fashion photographer Rodney Smith (1947-2016) exist in a timeless world of his imagination. Born in New York City, Smith started out as a photo-essayist, turned to portrait photography, and found his niche, and greatest success, in fashion photography. Inspired by W. Eugene Smith, taught by Walker Evans, and devoted to the techniques of Ansel Adams, Smith was driven by the dual ideals of technical mastery and pure beauty. This lavish volume features nearly two hundred reproductions of Smith's images-many that have never before been published-and weaves together a biocritical essay by Getty Museum curator Paul Martineau and a technical assessment of Smith's production by the Center for Creative Photography's chief curator, Rebecca Senf. It maps Smith's creative trajectory-including his introduction to photography, early personal projects, teaching, commissioned pieces, and career in fashion-and provides insight into his personal life and character, contextualizing his work and creative tendencies within his privileged but lonely upbringing and his complex emotional and psychological makeup. Rodney Smith is the definitive record of the life's work and worldview of a truly original artist.

Tom Ford has become one of fashion's great icons. In the past decade, he transformed Gucci from a moribund accessories label into one of the sexiest fashion brands in the world. His designs have increased sales at Gucci tenfold and have helped build the Gucci brand into the luxury goods conglomerate that it is today. Ford brought a hard-edged style synonymous with 21st century glamour to his clothes, and Hollywood sat up and took note.
This book is a complete catalogue of Ford's design work for both Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent from 1994 to 2004. It chronicles not only Ford's clothing and accessories designs for both houses, but also explores Ford's grand vision for the complete design of a brand, including architecture, store design, and advertising.
Tom Ford features more than 200 photographs by Richard Avedon, Mario Testino, Steven Meisel, Helmut Newton, Herb Ritts, Terry Richardson, Craig McDean, Todd Eberle, and numerous other photographers including many previously unpublished images.
Published to coincide with his departure from Gucci, this book has been created with Ford's full cooperation and every page reflects his exceptional taste. It is Ford's testament to a career of singular moments reinventing the boundaries of style and sensuality in clothing.

Vanity Fair 100 Years showcases a century of personality and power, art and commerce, crisis and culture—both highbrow and low. In the sumptuous 384-page coffee table book, the editors of Vanity Fair have created the definitive history of the most talked-about magazine of our day. From its inception in 1913, through the Jazz Age and the Depression, to its reincarnation in the boom-boom Reagan years (after a 47-year hiatus), to the image-saturated Information Age, Vanity Fair has presented the modern era as it has unfolded—using wit, imagination, peerless literary narrative and bold, groundbreaking imagery. The most innovative voices in popular culture are all compiled within these pages (from Robert Benchley, Jacques Cocteau and Dorothy Parker, to William Styron, Christopher Hitchens and Dominick Dunne) along with the greatest magazine illustrators, artists and photographers of all time—most notably Edward Steichen and Annie Leibovitz, who, through Vanity Fair, virtually invented the modern celebrity portrait. Writers Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger contribute an essay on the incomparable Frank Crowninshield and the birth of the Jazz Age Vanity Fair, Jim Windolf chronicles the magazine’s rebirth in 1983, and Frank DiGiacomo gives the history of the glamorous Vanity Fair Oscar Party.

In the magazine world, no recognition is more highly coveted or prestigious than a National Magazine Award. Annually, members of the American Society of Magazine Editors, in association with the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, select the year's most dynamic, original, provocative, and influential magazine stories. The winning and finalist pieces in this anthology represent outstanding work by some of the most eminent writers in America as well as rising literary and journalistic talents. This prestigious collection includes stories that cover a variety of subjects from Elizabeth Kolbert's investigation into global warming in the "New Yorker" and James Bamford's look at the PR campaign behind the Iraq War in "Rolling Stone" to Chris Heath's remarkable profile of Merle Haggard in "GQ" and Bill Heavey's hilarious account of teaching his daughter to fish in "Field and Stream." Other writers include David Foster Wallace ( "The Atlantic Monthly"), Joyce Carol Oates ( "The Virginia Quarterly Review"), Priscilla Long ( "The American Scholar"), Jesse Katz ( "Los Angeles Magazine"), Marjorie Williams ( "Vanity Fair"), Hendrik Hertzberg ( "New Yorker"), Sven Birkerts ( "The Virginia Quarterly Review"), Erik Reece ( "Harper's"), Wendy Brenner ( "The Oxford American"), John Jeremiah Sullivan ( "GQ"), James Wolcott ( "Vanity Fair"), and Wyatt Mason ( "Harper's").

Wide-ranging in their style and subjects, these writers' stories inform, surprise, entertain, and provide new perspectives on our world. They also reflect elements that distinguish the best in magazine writing: moral passion, investigative zeal, vivid characters and settings, persistent reporting, and artful writing.

An inspiring, heartwarming memoir from the unlikely chef of The Waverly Inn

The Hunger is an insider's take on the crazy life that is the restaurant business, as well as an underdog's tale of survival. Dissatisfied with his corporate career, John DeLucie followed his passion for food to a single cooking class at the New School (where he was named Most Likely to Succeed). He launched his first food gig at SoHo's famed Dean & DeLuca, then cooked at several New York-area restaurants.

For fifteen years, DeLucie worked his way through major challenges, while accepting both successes and failures, until finally opening his restaurant The Waverly Inn--the Greenwich Village sensation. He now shares secrets about the behind-the-scenes details from the tiny kitchen, the front of the house, and outside the restaurant, where the paparazzi gather. Also included are the stories behind some of DeLucie's signature recipes.

The Hunger is a story about food and desire and appetite--an intimate window onto a chaotic world.

Vanity Fair presents 21 true stories of the new hard times

Where did all the billions go?

Commissioned by the editors at Vanity Fair magazine, The Great Hangover is an eye-opening collection of essays on the global economic crisis by fifteen of the most respected contemporary business writers in America, including:

Bryan Burrough (Barbarians at the Gate) on the atmosphere of uncertainty and fear that preceded the demise of Bear Stearns . . .

Michael Lewis (Liar's Poker) on Iceland's bizarre national implosion . . .

Mark Bowden (Black Hawk Down) on the decline of The New York Times and the threat to the ailing newspaper industry . . .

Mark Seal on the defining figure of the seriously tarnished New Gilded Age: the Grand Master of Greed, Bernie Madoff . . .

Along with compelling and sometimes hair-raising pieces from a dozen other Vanity Fair contributors on the recent recession's myriad villains and victims--and the worldwide impact of the financial downturn.

A personal and complete retrospective by one of the most important twentieth-century photographers. Elegantly curated by the legendary photographer and his youngest daughter Frances von Hofmannsthal, Snowdon looks back at an exceptional life and features a selection of 175 full-colour and black-and-white stylish fashion photographs and iconic portraits taken throughout his expansive and influential career. Having started photographing at a young age, Snowdon focused primarily on theater, fashion, and society photography before becoming the official Royal photographer and starting a six-decade working relationship with Vogue. In 1960, he married Princess Margaret, the sister of Queen Elizabeth II, and in 1961 he began his illustrious career with The Sunday Times magazine. Known for his expressive and candid portraits, using both subtle humour and quiet sincerity, Snowdon's work evokes a sense of familiarity met with extreme beauty. His successes have branched equally from the worlds of high fashion and celebrity to the British Royal family, making his audience vast and beloved. The subjects featured include Cecil Beaton, Charlie Chaplin, David Bowie, Marlene Dietrich, Bridgette Riley, David Hockney, Serge Gainsbourg, Yves Saint Laurent, and Jack Nicholson, among others. Archive material includes previously unpublished polaroids, private scrapbooks, and letters.

The business marketing genius at the forefront of today s entertainment marketing revolution helps corporate America get hip to today s new consumer the tan generation.

When Fortune 500 companies need to reenergize or reinvent a lagging brand, they call Steve Stoute. In addition to marrying cultural icons with blue-chip marketers, Stoute has helped identify and activate a new generation of consumers. He traces how the tanning phenomenon raised a generation of black, Hispanic, white, and Asian consumers who have the same mental complexion one based on shared experiences and values rather than the increasingly irrelevant demographic boxes that have been used to a fault by corporate America. But there is a language gap that must be bridged to engage the most powerful market force in the history of commerce.

"The Tanning of America" provides the needed translation guide. Drawing from his company s case studies, as well as from extensive interviews with leading figures in multiple fields, Stoute presents an insider s view of how the transcendent power of popular culture is helping reinvigorate and revitalize the American dream."