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Koto Bolofo: Venus Williams | 
| Creators: Koto Bolofo, Patrick Remy
Publisher: Steidl
Category: Book
List Price: $60.00
Buy New: $37.77
You Save: $22.23 (37%)
New (27) Used (6) from $37.77
Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 363973
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 100
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.7
Dimensions (in): 14.8 x 11.3 x 0.9
ISBN: 3865216021
Dewey Decimal Number: 778
EAN: 9783865216021
ASIN: 3865216021
Publication Date: July 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
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Product Description
With a power serve of 129 miles per hour and countless titles to her name (including number one in the world), Venus Williams is an amazing force in the world of tennis. She stands 6'1" and possesses great reach, or "wingspan," and a rare mental tenacity that has put many, many trophies on her mantelpiece. It was thanks to Williams' tireless campaigning that the bizarre sexist tradition of awarding a smaller prize money to female tennis players was corrected, at least at Wimbledon and the French Open. (Amusingly, Williams herself became the first beneficiary of this amendment when she won Wimbledon in June, 2007.) Williams' ascent to fame has been meteoric from the first. At her Grand Slam debut at the 1997 French Open, she reached the final, and although she did not win that match, her world ranking shot up from 66 to 25 in one day. By 1999, she was number three, and by 2000 she had won a gold medal for the U.S. at the Olympics--the first of two, thus far. This sense of un-stoppability has always characterized Venus Williams, and makes her gripping to watch. Now the British fashion photographer Koto Bolofo has caught some of her magic on camera, in ways that have never been seen before. Granted unrivalled access to the athlete, during both her public tournaments and many private moments, Bolofo offers here a monumental portrait of one of today's greatest athletes.
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| Customer Reviews:
Intriguing and Beautiful! August 21, 2008
I got this book with only a hint of what was to come. I enjoyed this thoroughly. The images are really outstanding and if you've got an inkling of tennis history and what Wimbledon means to Venus Williams then I think you'll love the Wimbledon section. Koto had an interesting take on Venus and on the surrounding things he shot and I think they fit in quite nicely. I only had one regret and that was that he had only followed her in 2005 and nothing further. I'd love to see another collaboration between these two, maybe even incorporating her sister Serena, or her whole family while Venus is at Grand slams. This was awesome work and you will really see Venus in a different more feminine role. Thanks so much for making such a great book for Venus Williams fans.
BEHOLD VENUS! August 14, 2008
I just received this book in the mail today from Amazon. Very fast delivery indeed! Let me say this is one that I will treasure! Why? because there is just nothing else like it out on the market today about Venus Williams. Yes, there are other books about Venus and about her sister Serena but nothing like this. It is above and beyond all the rest. The pictures are so personal, so artistic, so original. They go way beyond the tennis court into a time and place that makes you think of Venus in a whole new light. She is seen in a way that is more graceful, beautiful and soulful then in anything I have ever seen before. What Koto Bolofo has captured with his lens here is a joy for any photographer or Venus Williams fan to behold.
My only criticism of this book is that it did not come with a dust jacket. I thought that was strange.
All brains, heart, cheekbones, muscle and love. August 9, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Going beyond "sports action" or "celebrity glamour" photography, this is a book that will appeal to many fans of Venus and/or photography. Koto captures Venus as a whole person (both real and imagined) rather than just a celebrity sports figure or Hardbodied Goddess. The photos are in both color and b&w but mainly b&w. Sometimes she is a mythical 1920's athlete. Other times a streetwise soccer goddess or simply Venus. Funny, goofy, sexy, statuesque Venus.
Many of the pictures exude strength. I don't mean muscle or athleticism. I mean inner human Power for Good. Venus is a magical presence. Beyond hearing/seeing her give interviews on some serious topics myself, if you've ever heard Mary Carillo talk about the speech Venus gave in 2006 I believe it was, it sounds like it was something very special. On the surface the speech was about equal prize money at Wimbledon but I suspect in reality it was for and about women everywhere, and being tired of being asked to wait a little bit longer. It's not universally true (like WNBA and NBA for instance), but if you think about tennis of the past 10 or 15 years, more people know more of the women's names than they do the men's. At this point the women put nearly as many or more rear ends in seats as do the men. The respect and money should be equal.
I've heard Mary and I think it was Billie Jean King say they think Venus is why Wimbledon leveled the paying field. Whatever Venus said in that room was undeniable. She's also one of the rare American-born-and-raised world class athletes who can do interviews in multiple languages, and has been praised by people in the press as being one of the smartest and most intellectually curious world class athletes they've met.
This is the strength in many of these pictures. She seems to inhabit the space of women far removed from her own life. For the most part, women do the work of the world but they make less and eat last. There are pictures in here where Venus says it with her eyes.
Now I have to say it. Oh my god her cheekbones! If you hadn't noticed yet, she has one of the greatest skulls of all time. I have no other way to say it.
I love that the book has no captions, no "Venus is wearing...". This book isn't a hybrid travel guide, fashionista cross-marketing LOGOs all in your face book. It's the Venus tennis star we know, as well as a Venus in and out of some sort of dreamworld that I suspect was partly Koto's and partly hers. When she is gone from tennis and from life, this book will only grow in stature as a tribute to this woman who has meant so much to so many people.
On the quirky side of things, my binding is backwards. If you see me looking at the pictures in my book you'll be wondering why I am enjoying this big, sturdy, finely crafted book upside down. I haven't seen it in any store yet so I don't know if every book in this 1st edition is like this or if it's just mine. Either way I dig it.
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