‘Sid Avery: The Art of the Hollywood Snapshot’ Book Review

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on July 7, 2013
‘Sid Avery: The Art of the Hollywood Snapshot’
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Sid Avery: The Art of the Hollywood Snapshot
By Ron Avery & Tony Nourmand
Hardcover, 288 pages (Reel Art Press, $75)
 
A pioneering photographer who captured the candid, off-screen moments of some of Hollywood’s biggest stars for movie magazines and other publications from the ’40s into the ’60s, Sid Avery went on to found an agency, the mptv, that preserves and protects the work of celebrity photographers to this day. This coffee-table collection, with page after page of Avery’s shots of iconic actors and actresses in casual settings—Rock Hudson washing his car; Yul Brenner examining his stamp collection; Paul Newman making breakfast for wife Joanne Woodward; Humphrey Bogart on his sailboat; Kim Novak relaxing with a cup of coffee—is a treasure trove of nostalgia for fans of Tinsel Town’s golden age.