Divas! The Fabulous Photography of Kenn Duncan

For more than 20 years, Kenn Duncan's photographs energized such seminal New York arts publications as After Dark, Dance Magazine, and Opera News. Renowned for his ability to capture the distinctive styles and personalities of his subjects, frequently dancers, he gained widespread acclaim for his gift of celebrating a specific type of performer: the woman whose phenomenal talent and charisma make her more than a star, more than an icon; she is a Diva. Duncan adored the glamorous, larger-than-life personalities that defined American popular culture in the 1970s and 1980s, and they, in turn, adored him. Until his untimely death in 1986, Duncan's camera was like a disco ball illuminating the likes of Bernadette Peters, Chita Rivera, Angela Lansbury, Gelsey Kirkland, Joan Rivers, Bette Midler, and other luminaries of stage and screen.

Duncan's collection of more than 250,000 photographs is included in the Billy Rose Theatre Division at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Divas!--a glittery celebration of Duncan, his muses, and the time in which they lived, loved, posed, and partied--culls the best of these into a dazzling paean to the photographer and his subjects. It includes famous images, such as Anita Morris's controversial body-baring shot from Broadway's Nine, as well as rarely seen photographs of Susan Sarandon, Carrie Fisher, Lily Tomlin, Labelle, and Diane Keaton, and pairs them with page-turning biographies. All of which makes this book a must for prominent display on the coffee table of any Diva--or Diva in training!