Hardcover. Boston, Bulfinch/Little Brown, 1st, 1996, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, pictorial boards. 180 b/w photos of athletes in preparation for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. A celebrated, highly stylized photographer of rock stars shooting Olympic athletes? That apparent anomaly seems just right when the photographer in question is Leibovitz, whose portraiture has always managed to capture the inner turmoil lurking beneath outward calm. Wisely, she chose to shoot her athletes not in Atlanta, surrounded by hoopla, but in preparation for the games, isolated and intense. The results are stunning: a sculpted Carl Lewis in repose, achieving a Mapplethorpian elegance mixed with menace; a poised and incredibly focused Michael Johnson, suggesting all the unleashed energy it would take to run faster than anyone has ever run before; a sober U.S. women's softball team, exuding the determination that would eventually produce wild jubilation and the gold medal. Still in publisher's shrinkwrap.
