Beny, Roloff: Visual Journeys Mitchell Crites
This work celebrates the life annd work of a man obsessed with the beauty of the world. Roloff Beny, photographer, travelled to every corner of the globe, and created many books published this century. His visual journeys led him from his hometown of Medicine Hat, Alberta to a penthouse overlooking the Tiber in Rome, which was his base for more than 30 years. His books won awards throughout a long career: his first recognition came with The Thrones of Earth and Heaven and A Time of Gods, followed by Japan in Colour; India, Island: Ceylon and Persia: Bridge of Turquoise. Studies of his native and adoptive land: To Every Thing There is a Season: Roloff Beny in Canada and In Italy. Roloff Beny died in 1984 and this book is devoted to his work. It contains a selection of his photographs, together with a section of portraiture, drawing on his early days as a protege of Peggy Guggenheim and Herbert Read, and the circle of friends surrounding him - actors, artists, collectors, authors - among them Laurence Olivier, Jean Cocteau and Henry Moore.