Rihanna to Release 500-Page ‘Visual Autobiography’

Rihanna stands in a class of her own thanks to her ability to seemingly dominate every industry she enters. No other individual in recent memory has helmed a massively popular beauty brand, an LVMH-backed fashion line, and a game-changing lingerie line, on top of an already celebrated singing career. It’s not just that she’s doing all these things, it’s that she’s doing them while maintaining a level of quality and cultural cachet that others are only able to accomplish by specializing in one field. But while fans get to appreciate the final product her process is often marred in mystery. Until now, that is. Today, Rih took to Instagram to drop a major announcement: she is releasing a visual autobiography.

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‪Over 5 years in the making… happy to finally share this collection of incredible memories. Thank you to all of the photographers and artists that contributed and to @phaidonsnaps for working with me to publish my first piece of art in a new industry! Make sure you pre-order the book now on therihannabook.com ?? #theRIHANNAbook‬

A post shared by badgalriri (@badgalriri) on Oct 7, 2019 at 7:41am PDT

The book, published by Phaidon, promises 504 pages featuring 1,050 color images that span her childhood in Barbados, to her tours, and even photos from her private life. There are also 11 “special inserts,” all for $150. As if that weren’t enough, three special editions are also being released, all featuring different custom stands designed in collaboration with The Haas Brothers.

The Rihanna: Fenty x Phaidon edition features a different cover and retails for $175. The Rihanna: Luxury Supreme oversized edition retails for $5,500, is signed by Rih, and weighs a whopping 60 LBS. Finally, there is the Rihanna: Ultra Luxury Supreme edition. It is signed by Rih, and comes with a gorgeous sculptural stand that was hand-carved in Nazaré, Portugal from a unique piece of solid Pele de Tigre marble.

The whole shebang book and stand weighs 2,000 lbs. Sadly, there are only 10 copies of the Ultra Luxury Supreme edition and they are already sold out.

The cover of the Rihanna: Luxury Supreme and Ultra Luxury Supreme editions (Phaidon)

Rih mentions that the project was over five years in the making, so this tome is sure to be a detailed look at her life. If the book only spanned the last five years, it would be wildly insightful. But a photographic retrospective of Rihanna’s entire life? That’s bound to be an incredibly humanizing take on a living legend.