Doug Menuez

Fearless Genius

The Digital Revolution in Silicon Valley 1985-2000

SIGNED Doug Menuez

New York. Atria Books. 2014. First edition. First printing with the full number line. Hardcover. With the dust jacket. SIGNED by Doug Menuez on the title page. Inscribed and dated. 171 pages. 4to-over 9¾"-12" tall. With a foreword by Elliot Erwitt. Introduction by Kurt Anderson. Very good plus in a very good dust jacket.

An eye opening chronicle of the Silicon Valley technology boom, capturing key moments in the careers of Steve Jobs and more than seventy other leading innovators as they created today's digital world. In the spring of 1985, a technological revolution was under way in Silicon Valley, and documentary photographer Doug Menuez was there in search of a story, something big. At the same time, Steve Jobs was being forced out of his beloved Apple and starting over with a new company, NeXT Computer. His goal was to build a super computer with the power to transform education. Menuez had found his story; he proposed to photograph Jobs and his extraordinary team as they built this new computer, from conception to product launch.

In an amazing act of trust, Steve Jobs granted Menuez unlimited access to the company, and, for the next three years, Menuez was able to get on film the spirit and substance of innovation through the day-to-day actions of the world's top technology guru. From there, the project expanded to include the most trail blazing companies in Silicon Valley, all of which granted Menuez the same complete access that Jobs had. Menuez photographed behind the scenes with John Warnock at Adobe, John Sculley at Apple, Bill Gates at Microsoft, John Doerr at Kleiner Perkins, Bill Joy at Sun Microsystems, Gordon Moore and Andy Grove at Intel, Marc Andreessen at Netscape, and more than seventy other leading companies and innovators. It would be fifteen years before Menuez stopped taking pictures, just as the dot com bubble burst. An extraordinary era was coming to its close.

With his singular behind-the-scenes access to these notoriously insular companies, Menuez was present for moments of heartbreaking failure and unexpected success, moments that made history, and moments that revealed the everyday lives of the individuals who made it happen. This period of rapid, radical change would affect almost every aspect of our culture and our lives in ways both large and small and would also create more jobs and wealth than any other time in human history. And Doug Menuez was there, a witness to a revolution.

In more than a hundred photographs and accompanying commentary, Fearless Genius captures the human face of innovation and shows what it takes to transform powerful ideas into reality.

Minimal wear to the boards. Internally, clean, bright and tight. Handled with great care. The dust jacket has light wear. Few scratches visible in the light. Not price clipped. A great scarce signed copy.  

SIGNED Doug Menuez.