Title: 108 Portraits Author: Gus Van Sant Publisher: Twelvetrees Press, 1995 Photographs by Gus Van Sant; 110 pages, 108 black and white illustrations   In the introduction to this compelling book, the filmmaker Gus Van Sant explains the rather unconventional method by which he amassed this compendium of photographs. When actors and actresses would come to his office for an audition, he would often take a picture of them upon their departure. He used an ancient 1965 Polaroid camera, equipped with film that simultaneously produced both a negative and a positive. He kept the positives in his desk so that when he was imagining the film in his head, he could visually place potential actors into their roles. It later occurred to him that the negatives from the nonchalant portraits he had been staging could be turned into blown up images, and printed here in book form. These beautifully presented photographs function on multiple levels for several audiences. They remind Van Sant of the power of a single image, the moment the picture was taken, and the way that moment may have shaped the future of the subject. For viewers and readers alike, the images function as a scrapbook from the early 1990s; the faces are familiar, perhaps not as familiar as they would become, or perhaps as a memory of what they were. And for the subjects depicted, these photographs represent a measure of uniformity and hopefulness while simultaneously asserting a sense of individuality and determination.

	Condition: As new, First edition Price: $250.00