Acclaimed photography critic and author Vince Aletti will be in conversation with graphic designer Ruth Ansel and creative director Sam Shadid around the release of his recent book, Issues: A History of Photography in Fashion Magazines (Phaidon). Issues showcases and critically explores the groundbreaking photography published in magazines over the last century, featuring work by photographers like Richard Avedon, Collier Schorr, Diane Arbus, and Wolfgang Tillmans from publications like Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Fantastic Man, The Face, i.D., among others, all taken from Aletti’s personal collection. 

Strand Book Store will sell books at the event and Vince Aletti will sign copies following the discussion.

Register

The event is free and open to the public. General public should reserve a space here. Please note seating is on a first come basis; an RSVP does not guarantee admission as we generally overbook to ensure a full house.

Vince Aletti is a writer, curator and critic whose work appears regularly in Artforum, photograph, and Aperture, among other publications. Aletti was art editor and photography critic of the Village Voice from 1994 to 2005 and reviewed photography exhibitions for the New Yorker’s “Goings On About Town” section from 2005 to 2016. He is the author of The Disco Files 1973–79: New York’s Under- ground, Week by Week (2018), and coauthor of Avedon Fashion 1994–2005 (2009). In 2005, he won the International Center of Photography Infinity Award for Writing. 

Ruth Ansel is a graphic designer and art director who began her career at Harper’s Bazaar in 1961 and went to work as an art director at The New York Times Magazine (1974–1982), House & Garden (1982–1983), and Vanity Fair (1983–1988). She has collaborated with photographers and artists like Richard Avedon, Annie Leibovitz, Andy Warhol, Peter Beard, and Tim Walker. She formed her own design studio in the early 1990s, where she designed a number of books and advertising campaigns for Club Monaco, Versace, and Karl Lagerfeld. A book about her career titled Hall of Femmes: Ruth Ansel (2010) includes color reproductions about both her editorial work and advertising campaigns, together with her candid opinions throughout. In 2011 she was inducted in the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame.

Sam Shahid is the President and Creative Director of Shahid & Company, a full service branding, advertising and design agency, which he founded in 1993. He has worked on advertising campaigns for Abercrombie & Fitch, Versace, Sam Edelman, David Yurman, among others, as well as on publications like Interview and Musée Magazine. He has art directed numerous books with authors like Kelly Klein, Herb Ritts, Ellen Von Unwerth, and Tonne Goodman and in 2007 he launched his own imprint, Antinous Press.