Photo Sex: Fine Art Sexual Photography Comes of Age

Rating:
Summary: Sexual Photography as Fine Art
Review: David Steinberg has put together a collection of erotic photographs that, while exposing us to the many facets of the sexual world, moves sexual photography itself into the realm of fine art. Sometimes startling, sometimes breathtaking, sometimes bizarre, yet always absorbing, these photos will engage you through form, texture and substance. I believe that this book may well become the standard by which future fine art books of sexual photography will be measured.

Rating:
Summary: A New Vision of Sexuality
Review: David Steinberg now has TWO books that redfine the way we see sex. Ten or fifteen years ago, his Erotic by Nature was, as far as I know, the first coffee table book that mixed unblinking photography by master photographers with stories and poems of the same quality and erotic directness. My copy of that book, still in a place of honor in our home after all those years, has been reverentially thumbed by innumerable visitors. Now David has another even more electric collection of pictures. Some of these photographs are beautiful or joyful enough to bring me to tears. Some jolt me each time I look at them. Taken altogether, though, they seem neither romantic nor assaultive, but in some important way simply the truth. This may not be a volume for your Aunt Lilian, but if the words "sex" and "truth" live anywhere close to each other in your head, buy this book.

Rating:
Summary: Steamy & Sexy
Review: David Steinberg's book Photo Sex: Fine Art Sexual Photography Comes of Age
By Sensuous Sadie
[e-mail]
www.sensuoussadie.com

In the introduction A.D. Coleman says, "the book in your hands is not just another volume of loosely defined 'erotic' photography in which formal nude studies and elaborately staged but fictional sexual scenarios predominate. These are photographs of everyday people-not hired models or professional sex workers-engaged in real sex." "Thank heavens," I thought. I've pretty much had it with staged erotica - the kind where a model stands against a black backdrop in a latex maid outfit and a whip in her hand, the kind rife at what he calls the "tens of thousands of unfathomably popular, hopelessly boilerplate, sex websites," but hardly what I see in real life.

Give me instead what David collected in Photo Sex, "Older people, hefty people, skinny people, people with disabilities-these and more mingle here, linked principally by their acknowledgment of their sexuality as central to their lives and by their participation in these acts of photo sex." Yes, people who look like me, and like my kinky friends. Yes, people like me, who celebrate sex as the core of our being. And Yes, real sex and love and affection, the kind I feel when my lover Griffin looks into me, his hands on me and in me.

The photos are beautiful. Sexual. Alive with hunger. But then, it turns out that this book is about a little more than just that. Coleman goes on to discuss this type of photography as inherently political, saying that, "By its very existence, the range of sexual images being produced opposes the core right-wing dictate that sexual activity should properly be restricted to heterosexual interaction between husbands and wives, without accouterments and with procreation foremost in mind-and that sexual activity should never involve shameless public display."

We in the BDSM community are often reminded not to "scare the villagers," meaning don't let them see too much of our practices because they cannot understand what they are seeing and will use it against us. Maybe that's true, but in another way it so damages us both in the public arena as well as in the private one. There is another part of me, a hunger for my vanilla friends to see me, the whole me, not just the fluff I assemble for public consumption. My vanilla friends have responded in a variety of ways, from mild titillation to a blank look. Even my kinky friend Susan exhorts me to keep this side of myself under the blanket so as not to make anyone uncomfortable by "unconsensually" including them in my lifestyle, or because I might appear to have gone "around the bend with that bondage stuff." She is right in one way though, I also don't want to become one of those BDSM-obsessed people who bore us silly, yammering on and on about their sex life.

I cannot keep it all under the blanket though. The only way to remove the stigma of an alternative sexuality is to educate our vanilla brethren. Speaking openly about what we do and who we are is part of that. It's not that I want to share what I did in bed last night, but rather I want to be free to talk about the remarkable world of sexuality and how that affects my personal and public life. I am hungry for compatriots, hungry to connect on a deeper level about what is meaningful. Sadly, in our culture talking about sexuality is often not acceptable, not to mention alternative sexuality like BDSM. Even when I do find vanilla friends open to discussion, they must start at the beginning as in, "What does that B-D-S-M stand for again?" With that in mind, a deeper discussion of sexual politics is never going to be on the table.

One day my life will have its own generational shift, a shift that like David's book, offers "glimpses of the playful, the tender, the intimate, the affectionate, the delicate, the humorful, even the goofy-sex in all its delicious, constantly shifting intricacy." One day I will be known for all of it, and then I too will be a coffee table book of delicious desserts, easy to taste along with all the other flavors of my inner landscape.

Copyright 2003 Sadie Sez Publications

Rating:
Summary: Intent and Expression, Live
Review: Mr. Steinberg's years of accumulating insight into both our souls and our bodies astonishing works of emotional art here yield an intensely beautiful collection. Photo Sex presents an important new genre of narrative erotic fine photography, some images are subtle and romantic, some are extreme and electrifying, and together with all shades in between create a tapestry of an unequaled scope. This is a refreshing work inviting unapologetic visual appreciation of diverse real sexuality which is long overdue. Mr. Steinberg's elegantly written introduction in itself is well worth acquiring.

Rating:
Summary: I love this book, and you will too!
Review: Photo Sex is gorgeous, provocative and potentially the first of a brand new genrre, photos that are unembarrassed to look at and truly see regular people relating sexually and intimately to one another and to themselves. The sexual energy passing between partners in these photos is palpable whether or not we viewers can see their genitals. I love knowing that David knows many of these wonderful photographers personally, and that he utilized his familiarity with them and, in some cases their entire body of work to make such thoughtful selections for this collection.

Full discolsure ahead: David Steinberg and I have been friends for over 25 years, but I feel quite sure I'd be just as excited about this book even if he weren't a good friend. Also, I'm as pleased as I can be that he and Down There Press (which I founded in 1974) decided to work together on this most worthy book.

Rating:
Summary: Disturbingly Beautiful
Review: This book is full of disturbingly beautiful images. Some are erotic, as in--sexually stimulating to the viewer--whereas others are more broadly intriguing. Some images I find upsetting, or funny, or aesthetically evocative. My favorite photographs in the book are those that are full of mystery. If you are interested in the artistic side of sexual photography, or in looking at all sorts of people turning each other on in special ways, this book will tickle your eye bones and finger your mind.

Rating:
Summary: But is it art?
Review: This is a nice compilation of erotic photography from a number of photographers, but is it "fine art" as most folks define the term? I don't think so -- maybe "fine erotic art" would be a more accurate description. Many people will find many of the images pornographic rather than erotic, and a few of them disturbing. Which "few" depends on one's particular sexual preference, habits, experience, etc. -- mine will likely be different from yours. Whatever, this is a volume for lovers of graphic eroticism, not for those looking for "fine art" in the traditional sense -- fans of Roy Stuart or Eric Kroll should enjoy this book, although its images aren't as fetishistic as those photographers'. It's worth the price, if only to add to one's collection, but keep it away from children and folks wearing pacemakers.

One gripe: The reproduction of the images wasn't as good as it should be, with somewhat wishy-washy blacks and whites -- the overall impression of many of the pictures is gray, without the contrast and rich blacks of a true photograph. At the price of the book, I guess this is expected, since great printing costs money, but I was disappointed nevertheless.

Also, many of the images depict what middle-of-the-roaders would consider aberrant sexual activity, so if anything other than straight hetero encounters puts you off, shop for another book. On the other hand, it's obvious from the expressions of the participants that it's all in good fun.

I wouldn't buy this book again, but I didn't return it, either, for what that's worth.