The Face in the Lens

Anonymous photography has a magic all its own. The intriguing images assembled here by collector and curator Robert Flynn Johnson are all mysterious, but their appeal is various. By turns poignant, humorous, erotic, and disturbing, their subject is the human condition. In ten stunning chapters every aspect of human experience—both public and private—is explored. Richly reproduced and with subtle tonalities marking their age, over 220 photographs showcase the work of photographers whose identities have been lost in time. The images are never anything less than mesmerizing and include previously unseen portraits of such stars as Cary Grant, Richard Burton, and Marlene Dietrich. Introduced by Alexander McCall Smith, this follow-up to Johnson's widely acclaimed Anonymous touches on birth, marriage, death, disease, hope, glory, and despair and a plethora of additional emotions, events, and human states, and will capture the imagination of any reader.

Copub: Thames and Hudson

Robert Flynn Johnson is Curator Emeritus of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. He is the author of many books, including Anonymous: Enigmatic Images from Unknown Photographers. Alexander McCall Smith is the author of over sixty books, including the award-winning No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series.