The Essential Cecil Beaton: Photographs 1920-1970 by Philippe Garner and David Alan Mellor

The Essential Cecil Beaton: Photographs 1920-1970 by Philippe Garner and David Alan Mellor (Schirmer/Mosel: $65). The 265 images in this beautiful book trace the flamboyant photographer’s high-low vision of the world, his strange self-positioning between the upper-classes of aristocrats and celebrities, the milieu of international, British and Hollywood royalty, to the seamy London underworld he often explored, always moving effortlessly among them.