David Graham is a noted photographer whose other books include Only in America (Alfred A. Knopf, 1991) and American Beauty (Aperture, 1987). Taking Liberties is the third book of this trilogy. He also produced a book of portraits, Land of the Free (Aperture, 1999). Graham teaches at the Univeristy of the Arts in Philadelphia and works regularly for magazines such as The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, Time, Fortune, and Forbes. His photographs are included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Philadelphia Art Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Robert Venturi is a renowned American architect whose influence extends throughout the world. A respected theorist and artist, he is also the author of Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (Museum of Modern Art) and Learning from Las Vegas (MIT Press) with Denise Scott Brown. Among his best known projects are the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery in London, the Seattle Art Museum, and the Frist Campus Center at Princeton University.