In his distinguished career as a Hollywood photographer, Bob Willoughby took iconic photos of Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and Jane Fonda, but remains unequivocal about his favorite subject: Audrey Kathleen Ruston, later Edda van Heemstra Hepburn-Ruston, best known as Audrey Hepburn. Willoughby was called in to shoot the new starlet one morning shortly after she arrived in Hollywood in 1953. It was a humdrum commission for the portraitist often credited with having perfected the photojournalistic movie still, but when he met the Belgian-born beauty, Willoughby was enraptured. "She took my hand like... well a princess, and dazzled me with that smile that God designed to melt mortal men's hearts," he recalled.
As Hepburn's career soared following her Oscar-winning US debut in Roman Holiday, Willoughby became a trusted friend, framing her working and home life. His historic, perfectionist, tender photographs seek out the many facets of Hepburn's beauty and elegance, as she progresses from her debut to her career high of My Fair Lady in 1963. Willoughby's studies, showing her on set, preparing for a scene, interacting with actors and directors, and returning to her private life, comprise one of photography's great platonic love affairs and an unrivalled record of one of the 20th century's touchstone beauties.
"People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone." Audrey Hepburn
"Wonder if anybody will ever be as beautiful as Audrey Hepburn again, in this collector's edition book by Hollywood photographer Bob Willoughby See movie stills, behind the scenes moments on-set and some more private shots of this screen beauty at her most enrapturing." Irish Tatler, Dublin, Ireland
Audrey Hepburn by Bob Willoughby at Coggles. com
Hardcover - 28 x 36cms 280 pages
ISBN: 978-3-8365-2737-8