LONDON.- Printed in ultra-violet ink in a hand-numbered slipcased edition of 1000 copies, Color is the first monograph by British photographer Ben Hassett. In keeping with his acute sense of the powerful language of colour photography, Hassett invites us into his world of photographic experimentation to experience the possibilities of this chromatic medium.

Color draws together Hassett’s iconic fashion and beauty images, studio still lifes, abstract in-camera works and landscape photographs to present his unique lexicon of colour photography. Putting aside the conventions of chronological and project-by-project sequencing, the book instead pursues a dynamic reading that surveys the past ten years of Hassett’s standing as an influential image maker.

In her essay for the book, Charlotte Cotton writes, “Color is Ben Hassett’s pluralistic, celebratory ode to photography and the experimental journey on which it has taken him. In his hands, color is multiform: a symbolic detail that resists easy translation; a visual strategy that upends our expectations of what can be beautiful; a cast that permeates and amplifies the emotional register of its subject; a monochromatic palette that withdraws all visual interference; the singular, literal subject of his most abstract photographs; and a visual space where opposing registers of color come together.”

Color is designed by veteran art and creative director Fabien Baron, known for his innovative art direction of Harpers Bazaar, Interview and Madonna’s infamous 1992 book Sex.

Ben Hassett, who was born in London and now lives and works in New York, has established a reputation as one of the most sought-after photographers working today. Experimenting with shadow and light, colour and form, he follows in the tradition of Irving Penn and Erwin Blumenfeld as a commercial photographer who also creates fine art. His work is held in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London, and he is a regular contributor to Vogue magazines worldwide. Alongside his commercial studio practice, he creates experimental still life and landscape photography.

‘Color is the enduring, elemental energy with which Hassett has continually pushed beyond conventional forms, driven by his internal creative compass” – Charlotte Cotton