Gail Leboff, Josef Astor & Kevin Walz
Josef Astor
Josef Astor was born in Ohio. He graduated with a BFA from Syracuse University and soon moved to New York where he worked as a photo assistant for Gosta Peterson, Deborah Turbeville, Irving Penn, and, briefly, Angus McBean. In 1985, he opened his own studio and began his historically informed, theatrically staged style that drew upon various influences from his life: art history, his father’s medical practice, science and magic. Astor has worked for such advertising clients as AT&T, IBM, Phillip Morris, Bergdorf Goodman, Absolut Vodka, and such magazines as The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, GQ and The New York Times magazine. In 1996 he received the Infinity Award for Applied Photography from the International Center of Photography.
Kevin Walz
Kevin Walz is an artist and designer who lives and works in New York. He studied Fine Arts at the Pratt Institute and the New York Studio School. Walz’s furniture designs begin with fine natural materials, such as hardwoods, cork, glass, and metals, which are then combined with resins, carbon fiber and new technologies and processes to allow for thin profiles, fluid forms, and tactile, resilient surfaces. Walz is the recipient of the Rome Prize and is in the Interior Design Magazine Hall of Fame. His art and designs have been exhibited in galleries and museums in North America and Europe. He joined RALPH PUCCI in 2003.
Gail Leboff
Born in Brooklyn, photographer Gail Leboff began her studies at the School of Visual Arts and went on to receive her BA and MA in Photography and Studio Art from NYU. The recipient of the prestigious Louis Tiffany Biennial Award, she lives and works in New York City and Vermont, the latter the setting of her “Atmosphere” works. “Atmosphere was photographed in Vermont during extreme weather shifts. I waited, in various locations, for moments when the clouds would begin to lift from the horizon, and then I would begin. I focused on the sky, thus transforming the landscape below into dark shadows and rendering the images with a monochromatic blue mood. I hope by doing this to create unsettling but mesmerizing images that would reflect our fragile but beautiful environment.” Leboff joined RALPH PUCCI in 1999.