The pages of Square Mile have been graced by some truly great photographers lately: Terry O'Neill, Guy Bourdin and Kevin Cummins, to name a few. And while all of them are captivating, identifiable and era-defining in their own ways, none of them can lay claim to a body of work as expansive and eclectic as that of the late, great Art Kane.

 

A New York native, Kane made his name as an art director initially before moving to photography, and in the 1960s and 1970s became one of the medium's greatest pioneers. 

 

Kane described himself as a "conceptual photographer", and his vast portfolio encompasses everything from rough-and-ready shots of the nascent Rolling Stones to provocative high-fashion campaigns, surrealist photos of cows being airlifted off mountains and sweeping, perspective-skewing compositions that look more at home on a gallery wall than the pages of magazines.

 

It's difficult to summarise a career that covered so much, but that's no reason not to try. Some of the artist's most iconic work is collated in a brand new retrospective, curated in part by his son Jonathan. Co-writer Holly Anderson says of the book: "Art Kane's impeccable eye lives on in our new book to inspire new image-makers, whatever their medium, to tell stories that will remain timeless - like Art's most resonant work."

 

The book is entitled, simply, Art Kane a name that is perfectly befitting for the work of a man who needed no introduction.