ABOUT THE BOOK

For a period spanning approximately eight years, Gordon Stettinius, a photographer and a man of average appearance, sporadically visited the Mangini Studio in Richmond, Virginia, to have his portrait taken. Terry Brown, a fine art photographer as well as a commercial portraitist, happened, at that time, to be Mangini’s principal studio photographer.  The first of the styled portraits Brown recorded came about as the result of Stettinius’ disquieting need to experiment with the proud but oft-maligned hairstyle known to some as the permanent wave.

Not long after this initial effort, Stettinius began to sense a sea change in people’s general attitude toward him. After a little social experimentation around town and an abundance of hard-core introspection, the conclusion he drew was indisputable. His friends, he felt certain, had begun to crave his attention.  His loved ones, it seemed, were loving him even more than before. And, more impressive yet, colleagues even had begun to defer to his opinions and wishes on matters of every description.  In the fall of that year, his love life even turned around for the better.

To date, Brown and Stettinius have produced over fifty of these studio portraits.  Taken individually, the images run from believable to the slightly ridiculous. Taken collectively, one has to wonder if these two might have found something more productive to do with their time.

ABOUT THE SPECIAL EDITION

Thirty-six copies of the book will come in a custom-constructed, foil-stamped, leatherette clamshell case, with a choice of one of three 8 x 10 inch archival pigment prints by the artists.

The three available prints are Perm (short), 2014, Beehive, 2008 and Governor, 2009.