01.06.09
H.P. by Harry Peccinotti Book Review
The English women’s fashion magazine Nova is fondly remembered today for its groundbreaking design, typography, subject matter and photography.
Launched in 1965 it was one of a group of magazines including Town, Show and Twen that laid the foundations for how magazines look today and how photography is used. Its London-born art director Harry Peccinotti saw himself as intrinsic to the total vision of the magazine. Inspired by the quality of the editorial, he art directed the magazine, while also taking on the role of its chief photographer, shooting fashion, portraits, still lifes and abstract compositions and expressing his vision as confidently with a camera as he did with a typeface.
Now aged 73 and living in Paris he has compiled this comprehensive collection of both his design work for Nova and his photographic work for the magazine, his two Pirelli calendars and various Penguin book covers. His photographs, like his design work, were bold and often confrontational. With no pressure to please advertisers and with total creative freedom given by his editor he was able to explore his graphic ideas, experimenting with double and triple exposures, exaggerated scale and sexual ambiguity.
His time at Nova was brief, as by the end of 1966 he had left to work on a freelance basis for commercial clients and magazines in Paris such as Elle. However, his impact had been immense and his legacy strong. His images still feel relevant and challenging today, and as inspirational to current photographers and art directors
as they were in the mid Sixties.
This is the definitive collection of his work and an indispensable addition to any fashion photographer’s library. GS
H.P. by Harry Peccinotti
Published by Damiani £34.99
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