Beaten & Blown by the Wind: A Photo Book by Gucci and Bruce Gilden

by SHOWstudio on 24 June 2020

Featuring an idiosyncratic cast of characters wearing Gucci's Pre-Fall 2020 collection, the book was shot in Rome, in collaboration with the brand's creative director Alessandro Michele.

Featuring an idiosyncratic cast of characters wearing Gucci's Pre-Fall 2020 collection, the book was shot in Rome, in collaboration with the brand's creative director Alessandro Michele.

Gucci have announced its latest limited-edition art book, Beaten & Blown by the Wind, which features their Pre-Fall 2020 collection and was shot by American photographer Bruce Gilden. In the book is a selection of street imagery, featuring an idiosyncratic cast of characters, from Roman citizens to more famous faces like musician Achille Lauro, actress and model Benedetta Barzini, and fashion model and civil rights advocate Bethann Hardison. Portrayed in unforgiving close-up, and lit by harsh flash, the mood is brooding and stark.

'Bruce is a beautiful person with a poetic gaze on humanity,' said Alessandro Michele. 'We share the same passion for faces and an obsession with expressions, personalities and looks. I am a great collector of portraits because the human figure is central to me. Working with a photographer means seeing through someone else’s eyes and it was wonderful to see through Bruce’s eyes. I felt like I was looking at things under a microscope in a science laboratory.'

'I had never made a book in this way before, which I viewed as a photographic challenge, and the end result is a truly creative collaboration with Alessandro Michele,' says Bruce Gilden. 'Having Rome as the backdrop was great, the city really inspires me – the beauty of the architecture and its age and watching how the Roman people move around their unique surroundings, as well as discovering the statues in the park high above Rome that mix with beautiful clouds, and the panorama of the city below… it all lent itself for some good pictures.' He added: 'The design and layout of the book fits my photographic style and the experience I had making the images perfectly. 'Rome and its people got to me in a good way; I would like to go back and shoot them more thoroughly. I could even imagine living there.'

Beaten & Blown by the Wind will be priced at €180 (£175; $200) and distributed by IDEA Books, and will also be available at Gucci Garden in Florence and the Gucci Wooster Bookstore in New York.

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