ICONS Beautifully illustrated, timeless celebrations of the spirit of place What makes Florida, Florida? Glacier National Park, Glacier National Park? Through beautiful color photographs and short, evocative essays, learn the stories behind fifty of the best-known and beloved iconic places, foods, inventions, buildings, and traditions that reflect the personality of these special places.=
What do Madonna, Ray Charles, Mount Rushmore, suburbia, the banjo, and the Ford Mustang have in common? Whether we adore, ignore, or deplore them, they all influence our culture, and color the way America is perceived by the world. In this A-to-Z collection of essays scholars explore more than one hundred people, places, and phenomena as they seek to discover what it means to be labeled icon. From the Alamo to Muhammad Ali, from John Wayne to the zipper, the American icons covered in this unique three-volume set include subjects from culture, law, art, food, religion, and science. By providing numerous ways for the reader to engage in the process of interpreting these images and artifacts, the work serves as a unique resource for students of American history and culture. Features 100 illustrations. What do Madonna, Ray Charles, Mount Rushmore, suburbia, the banjo, and the Ford Mustang have in common? Whether we adore, ignore, or deplore them, they all influence our culture, and color the way America is perceived by the world. This A-to-Z collection of essays explores more than one hundred people, places, and phenomena that have taken on iconic status in American culture. The scholars and writers whose thoughts are gathered in this unique three-volume set examine these icons through a diverse array of perspectives and fields of expertise. Ranging from the Alamo to Muhammad Ali, from John Wayne to the zipper, this selection of American icons represents essential elements of our culture, including law, art, food, religion, and science. Featuring more than 100 illustrations, this work will serve as a unique resource for students of American history and culture. The interdisciplinary scholars in this work examine what it means when something is labeled as an icon. What common features do the people, places, and things we deem to be iconic share? To begin with, an icon generates strong responses in people, it often stands for a group of values (John Wayne), it reflects forces of its time, it can be reshaped or extended by imitation, and it often breaks down barriers between various segments of American culture, such as those that exist between white and black America, or between high and low art. The essays contained in this set examine all these aspects of American icons from a variety of perspectives and through a lively range of rhetoric styles.
What meaning does the American public attach to images of key black political, social, and cultural figures? Considering photography’s role as a means of documenting historical progress, what is the representational currency of these images? How do racial icons “signify”? Nicole R. Fleetwood’s answers to these questions will change the way you think about the next photograph that you see depicting a racial event, black celebrity, or public figure. In On Racial Icons, Fleetwood focuses a sustained look on photography in documenting black public life, exploring the ways in which iconic images function as celebrations of national and racial progress at times or as a gauge of collective racial wounds in moments of crisis. Offering an overview of photography’s ability to capture shifting race relations, Fleetwood spotlights in each chapter a different set of iconic images in key sectors of public life. She considers flash points of racialized violence in photographs of Trayvon Martin and Emmett Till; the political, aesthetic, and cultural shifts marked by the rise of pop stars such as Diana Ross; and the power and precarity of such black sports icons as Serena Williams and LeBron James; and she does not miss Barack Obama and his family along the way. On Racial Icons is an eye-opener in every sense of the phrase. Images from the book. (http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu/pages/Fleetwood.aspx)
The most incandescent example of Bombshells is Marilyn Monroe. Her strange combination of ghostly pale skin, childlike face and innate erotic cunning render her hard to date. Unlike modern actresses we can’t sense the stylist in her clothes, the heavy hand of a makeup artist or a photographer’s over bearing concept. Clearly and hauntingly, her image belongs to her and it is equal parts spectral nymph, mid century beach bunny, haughty heiress and child star. With an hourglass body and a face like Shirley Temple the oddity of Monroe is her wholesomeness. She could sell diamonds or milk. She looked naked in a white cotton dress and perfectly dignified in the nude. She her clothes. Some say she sawed off one stiletto shoe heel a fraction lower to deepen the sway of her hips. Clearly she wasn’t happy, and this just serves to deepen the myth and her lure. Her own words, “Being a sex symbol is heavy load” could speak for all of the women who traded infamy for scandal and some scrap of security. Bettie Page, the underground queen of silk stockings, light bondageand leopard skin bikinis claimed very practical reasons for being a pin-up model, preferring the work to “pounding a typewriter eight hours a day”. They were a breed that we have not seen the like of again. Bombshells. Marilyn Monroe Brigitte Bardot Raquel Welch Sophia Loren Bettie Page Mata Hari Audrey Hepburn Jane Russell Fashion Industry Broadcast’s “STYLE ICONS” is a series: Style Icons – Vol 1 Golden Boys Style Icons – Vol 2 Hunks Style Icons – Vol 3 Bombshells Style Icons – Vol 4 Sirens Style Icons – Vol 5 Idols Style Icons– Vol 6 Young Guns Style Icons – Vol 7 Kittens Style Icons – Vol 8 Babes Fashion Industry Broadcast is the number one destination on the web for the latest in fashion, style, creative arts, creative media, models, celebrity biographies and much more. Our site is available globally in 13 languages and is updated daily. Not a minute goes by without our passionate team scouring the globe for the latest breaking news and insider gossip. Fashion Industry Broadcast publishes on a vast array of media platforms art books, eBooks, apps for mobiles and television documentaries. We cover all the key areas of popular culture, style and media arts. Our products are sold globally in over 100 countries through our partnerships with people like Amazon, Apple, Google and many more. You can purchase all of our products directly from the FIB site, please have a browse. www.fashionindustrybroadcast.com A very special video rich multimedia App version with hundreds of original Hollywood movies, interviews, Movie scenes, auditions, is available through Apple’s iTunes App store for just $4.99 per edition. Look for “STYLE ICONS” on the Apple App store. Contact [email protected]
