Lady Gaga to release book of photos for Xmas season

Lady Gaga, a book of never-before-seen photographs of Lady Gaga taken by famed fashion photographer Terry Richardson will hit bookstores on November 22, 2011, according to an announcement from Publisher Grand Central Books.  Lady Gaga will also write the foreword to the book.

Lady Gaga features over 350 of the more than 100,000 photographs Richardson took of Gaga between August 2010 and February 2011, including behind-the-scenes access to the making of the Born This Way album.  

Grand Central Books touts the photos as capturing “the intimate, random, behind-the-scenes moments” of her life and promises “Lady Gaga as never seen before.”  

Jamie Rabb, Grand Central’s Publisher, says Lady Gaga “will be one of the most stunning, provocative and coveted books of the 2011 holiday season.”

The book is sure to continue the Lady Gaga-Madonna comparisons that flourished after the release of Born this Way.  In 1992, Madonna famously published Sex, a $50 coffee table book of risqué photos of herself taken by fashion photographer Steven Meisel.  The book was a cultural sensation that sold more than 500,000 copies.  

While Grand Central’s announcement does not mention any sexually explicit photos in the book, Richardson is known for his controversial graphic and sexually charged photography.  His work has appeared in Vogue, British Vogue, GQ, and Harper's Bazaar and been the subject of numerous gallery shows.