David Montgomery: A Monograph

Brooklyn-born photographer David Montgomery (born 1937) is among the greatest portrait photographers of the 20th and 21st centuries. A contemporary of David Bailey, Terry O'Neill and Duffy, he was filmed by Antonioni for the title sequence of Blow Up, and he acted as a technical advisor for the movie. This long-overdue monograph is the first book on this legendary photographer; it has been produced in full collaboration with Montgomery.
Here, Montgomery's iconic work from the 1960s is highlighted, including the Jimi Hendrix portrait for which he is perhaps best known, used for his Electric Ladyland album cover--a shot for which Montgomery created an exploding 20-foot-high wall of fire behind Hendrix with a rope soaked in gasoline. Other classic images include the Who's Roger Daltrey sitting in a bath of cold baked beans for the cover of The Who Sell Out album; The Rolling Stones naked, covering themselves with copies of their Sticky Fingers album; Andy Warhol revealing the scars from his attempted assassination attack; and portraits of Jean Shrimpton, Twiggy, Mary Quant, Paul McCartney, Francis Bacon and others.
Also featured are the diverse photographic subjects Montgomery has worked with over the past 50 years. In 1967, he was the first American to photograph Queen Elizabeth II, saying he would never be frightened of another subject again after this nerve-wracking shoot. Other sitters include Alfred Hitchcock, Muhammad Ali, Lucian Freud, David Hockney, Oliver Reed, Sophia Loren and Barbra Streisand, to name only a few.