Talking Heads: The Vent Haven Portraits

Influential American celebrity photographer, director and creative director Matthew Rolston turns his eye for portraiture to a new cast of characters with the launch of TALKING HEADS, THE VENT HAVEN PORTRAITS. Using techniques he has honed over decades of celebrity portraiture, and marking his first foray into the world of fine arts, Rolston has captured the inherent humanity of a rarely-seen collection of unique entertainment figures: ventriloquist dummies. Unearthed from the intimate and obscure Vent Haven Museum in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, Rolston used a rigorously formal photographic approach to bring out the power in the faces of these figures through a series of 100 portraits, or "headshots". Rolston painstakingly selected the faces he was most drawn to and, in particular, those that conveyed a sense of character through pronounced aging, exaggerated features, and ornately painted faces, drawing the eye directly to the sometimes disturbingly human quality of each dummy. Breathing new life into these inanimate figures, Rolston's photographs channel a sustained and energetic presence that is at once commanding, totemic, and touchingly familiar. AUTHOR: Photographer, director, and creative director Matthew Rolston has been strongly identified throughout his career with the revival and modern expression of Hollywood glamour. His photographs have been published in magazines such as Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, Vanity Fair, W, and The New York Times Magazine to name just a few, and he has written and directed music videos and television commercials for a wide range of high-profile clients. SELLING POINTS: ?Featuring a series of 100 richly-coloured, high resolution portraits in an oversized, deluxe, square format edition ?Enriched with several essays, including one by Rolston himself, as well as archival photographs of many of the figures in Rolston's portraits and a history of the Vent Haven Museum and its collections ILLUSTRATIONS: 100 colour photographs