9th
January
2007
The Art of Designer Biographies
“Kerry William Purcell, author of the Phaidon books on Alexey Brodovitch, Josef Müller-Brockmann, as well as an unpublished text on Herbert Matter, has been writing about designers and photographers (Weegee) for many years. His thorough texts document the lives of these storied practitioners, but do they go further than to build a glorified resume? In this interview, Purcell examines and critiques the art and craft of writing professional biographies, and the problems that arise when the families of the subjects do not authorize the works.”