Patti Hansen: A Portrait

In the 231-page book, assembled by Ivan Shaw, the photography director of the Cond Nast Archives, theres a famous image of her in a one-piece swimsuit photographed by Arthur Elgort for the January 1976 edition of Vogue. Hansens swimsuit is wet and nearly transparent. Her hair is wet, too. Her pose is casual. Shes leaning on a railing overlooking the water. One can see a few swimmers in the blurry distance. The image is sexy because of everything that it is not: obvious, revealing, urgent. Her calm expression is inviting but not demanding. Will she delight in your company? Or shrug it off? -- Washington Post Ivan Shaw, photography director for the Conde Nast Archive and the driving force behind this particular collection of images, tells THR that the timing of the book felt just right: One of the things thats come out of the book is the idea of beauty at any age: You see Patti at 16beautifuland then again at 56, and shes just as beautiful. So theres this amazing 40-year arc. We started photographing her in 1972 and the last shoot we did with her for Vogue was 2012. I didnt plan it, it just came together in this beautiful visual biography and narrative. -- Hollywood Reporter shes just published a coffee-table tome of some of her favourite images from her career. Shes up there with Jerry Hall and Iman as a defining face of the Seventies, but her ability to switch from girl-next door to glamazon in a single snap is unique. In the books foreword, current fashion world darling Karlie Kloss calls Hansen Americas ultimate fashion icon. That seems fair. She was on the cover of 12 issues of Vogue between 1975 and 1978, with a smattering more since, and has starred in campaigns for Chanel, Calvin Klein and Gap. Hansen was a chameleon whose work spanned the athletic to the glamorous. -- The Daily Telegraph "In the foreword, Karlie Kloss describes American model Patti Hansen as 'a girl from Staten Island who turned into the ultimate fashion fairytale'. This tome takes a definitive look at her life and career through the most striking images of her, taken by the fashion world's elite - from her early American Vogue covers in the 1970s to her wedding to Keith Richards and the portraits Steven Meisel took of her in the 1990s." -- Vogue "Patti Hansen: A Portrait is a visual record of her time as a model, progressing from post-1960s fresh-faced innocence to 70s boho decadence through to a new century of high-end maternalism. Hansen got to play all those parts and more. She married Rolling Stone Keith Richards, became a mum, recovered from cancer and is still going strong. What is this? A life in pictures, of course." -- The Herald

Ivan Shaw is the director of photography at the Cond Nast archive. Formerly the executive photo director at Vogue, he also contributed to Around That Time (Abrams, 2016).