Blood Sweat And Tears: Or How I Stopped Worrying And Learned To Love Fashion

Photographer Bruce Weber intended to create a book of fashion photographs, however, as he became more involved in the process, his intention evolved into the desire to chronicle how fashion can be seen in nature, architecture, and the human spirit.

(excerpted from catalog copy) ?No book is about one thing.? By Bruce Weber At first I thought strictly about a book of photographs on fashion. As I worked on it, I thought more and more about something my friend the late, great fashion designer Gianni Versace once said, in giving me advice before an assignment, ?Call me des mode, but give me beauty.? And with these inspired words I wanted to make a record of how I journeyed out into the world and recorded what most people call fashion. These photographs were not just about the shape of clothes, but also how one sees fashion in nature, architecture, and in the human spirit. When I began photographing, I was at Life Magazine borrowing some equipment. I ran into a bunch of other photographers in the camera department. One photographer asked, ?what kind of photos are you doing for the magazine?? I replied, ?I am going to do some pictures of girls in bathing suits.? They all burst out laughing at me, and said, ?that doesn?t sound too serious..."