FACE TO FACE

Ever since he was a student at Columbia University, di Robilant was a welcome guest at Camilla (1925-2007) and Earl McGrath’s apartment in New York City. Camilla was an old friend of his father’s. She and her husband, who owned a gallery, loved art, and she loved to photograph people. This sumptuous collection of almost 700 photos from 1948 to 1999—now housed at the New York Public Library—forms an “extraordinary collection documenting behind-the-scenes moments in the lives of well-known artists, writers and musicians.” Camilla’s family was wealthy, and her marriage to Earl—whose friends included W.H. Auden and Frank O’Hara—in 1963 was “her ticket to a more unconventional life.” These mostly black-and-white, informal snapshots, some posed, most not, may seem ordinary, but the people in them are not. The first section, “Before Earl,” includes photos of Aristotle Onassis and artist Cy Twombly, among others. In “Marlia” (so named for the Italian estate owned by Camilla’s father), we see Jacqueline Kennedy, Audrey Hepburn, Princess Margaret, Nancy Pelosi, and Fran Lebowitz, who contributes some remembrances. Because Earl worked in the movie business and later at Atlantic Records with Ahmet Ertegun, their circle of famous friends grew. The “New York” section offers pictures of Leonard Bernstein with Richard Burton, Andy Warhol and Allen Ginsberg. Among countless other notable photos in this appealing package: Samuel Barber and Stephen Spender together; artists Richard Diebenkorn and Jasper Johns “sketching each others’ portrait”; Linda Ronstadt hugging Jerry Brown; Mick Jagger (pictured often) with Norman Mailer, Warhol, Arthur Schlesinger, and others at Jagger’s 1983 Christmas party; architects Michael Graves and Frank Gehry with interior designer Kitty Hawks; Joan Didion with Terry Southern and Jean Stein; and Ezra Pound with Buckminster Fuller in Spoleto in 1971. And the list goes on.