From Publishers Weekly
The subjects of these black-and-white portraits project their awareness of being in the presence of a friend, albeit a friend with a camera. Ponsold, who worked in the photography department at the Museum of Modern Art and is the wife of Robert Motherwell, had entree to the society of prominent artists, writers and musicians, from James Baldwin to Sophia Loren to David Hockney. She explains that she received the opportunity to photograph Louis Armstrong because she "had the good fortune to be invited to a private charity appearance at his hotel"; and that she met Octavio Paz when he visited Motherwell to discuss the use of the latter's lithographs in a special edition of Paz's poems. Both the admiring introduction by art critic Ashton and the afterword by Motherwell are too clubby to offer much of critical value, but these candid and thoughtfully composed images can stand on their own.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
