A captivating photographic odyssey spanning fashion, Hollywood and travel, this is the first publication in almost 40 years on the work of George Hoyningen-Huene, the photographer whose images defined an era. Baron George Hoyningen-Huene (1900–1968), known simply as Huene, worked during the golden age of couture fashion and Hollywood cinema. He was born in St Petersburg to a wealthy family, but they had to flee their home during the Russian revolution in 1917. Huene spent time in England before moving to Paris, where he was employed to create photographs for Vogue and Vanity Fair and rapidly established himself as a visual innovator, fusing elements of neoclassicism and surrealism to create chic, arresting images. In 1935, Huene joined Harper’s Bazaar magazine, where he remained a contributor until 1946, following which he settled in California and embarked on a second career as a colour coordinator for Hollywood films. Supported by an international exhibition opening at Chanel Nexus Hall in Tokyo, this book combines elegant design and production values with rigorous new research and scholarship. Organized into eight chapters, each supported by texts by contributing writers from the worlds of fashion, cinema and photography, and featuring names and faces that have defined our view of style, glamour and grace in the 20th century, it reminds us of Huene’s position among the greats of photography.

Originating from the Latin for deity or goddess, our concept of what a 'diva' might be - or should be - has evolved in richness and complexity. Delving into the personas of performers from Sarah Bernhardt to Rihanna, this book looks at what it has meant to be a diva, and what unites and defines these unique artists. Opening with 19th-century opera stars and 20th-century silent-screen sirens, it then focuses on different aspects of divadom: from Hollywood icons such as Elizabeth Taylor and Bette Davis cultivating their image to the activism of artists such as Billie Holiday and Miriam Makeba; from the acumen shown by Dolly Parton and Beyonce to the development of radical new musical identities by Madonna, Missy Elliot and Lady Gaga; from new ways of performing gender and sexuality by Tina Turner, Freddie Mercury and Grace Jones to the tensions between public and private experience by the likes of Amy Winehouse and Liza Minnelli.