The Collars of RBG A Portrait of Justice

A striking portrait of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her historic tenure on the United States Supreme Court, brought to life with bold photographs and stories of her iconic collars.

The collar is a powerful point of entry for exploring Justice Ginsburg's life and her tireless work on America’s highest court. Over time, Justice Ginsburg replaced traditional lace jabots with bold, ornate and subversive collars to communicate dissent, integrity, friendship, and so much more.

The Collars of RBG highlights the stories behind twenty-five of Justice Ginsburg's iconic collars. These neckpieces, captured in over 100 photographs, represent lives she touched, values she defended, and Supreme Court opinions that changed the course of history. Some of her collars are well-known, like her infamous dissent collar, or her favorite white beaded neckpiece from Cape Town that she wore for important portraits. Other collars are less familiar but tell poignant, never-before-shared stories of artists, colleagues, friends, and fans whose gifts to Justice Ginsburg found meaning in her hands.

Small in stature but towering in influence, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was described as a titan, a warrior, a civil rights hero, and most poetically, by her colleague Justice Stephen Breyer, "a rock of righteousness." Ginsburg's sharp use of language, a linchpin of her infamous dissents, is celebrated throughout, with quotes to support each collar and its story. The Collars of RBG is an artful collection of moments from this warrior's legacy, crystallizing the many ways RBG reshaped the cultural landscape for us all.

Elinor Carucci is an award-winning fine art photographer whose work has been included in many solo and group exhibitions worldwide and can be seen in The New York Times Magazine, New Yorker, Time, W, Aperture, ARTnews, and dozens of other publications. Carucci's photographs are also included in prestigious museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Jewish Museum, and the Houston Museum of Fine Art, among others. 

Sara Bader is a writer, researcher, and editor. Bader has worked as an acquisitions editor for Princeton Architectural Press and as a senior editor for Phaidon. In addition to editing dozens of photography and visual culture books, she has conceived and researched several of her own works, including Art Is the Highest Form of Hope & Other Quotes by Artists and You Had Better Make Some Noise: Words to Change the World.