Jock Sturges first, not best book, does have some nice work in it

books:

	• The Last Day of Summer: Photographs by Jock Sturges Aperture, 1993 - 96 pages average customer review:based on 26 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The Real Deal

Jock Sturges will probably stand as one of the great photographers of the 20th and 21st centuries....someday. His work with the friends and strangers who populate summer beaches and cottages where clothing is optional, year after year, testifies to his respect for his subjects and his affirming humanity. In current American culture, where hypersexuality is the marketing tool of choice, and merchants exploit every normal insecurity about appearance to sell endless crap to yearning multitudes, Sturges's pictures show us how beautiful we are, in all our shapes, sizes and ages, in nothing but the skin we are born with.

As a photographer, I am amazed at Sturges's ability to convince people to simply offer themselves up to his visual instincts. He returns to the same venues again and again, and becomes part of the places himself, rather than an intruder, and the people in his photographs see the work that results. Seeing themselves as he sees them, they appear to trust him completely. He steals no souls, but rather, affirms the conviction that we have souls in the first place. When asked to suggest a present for my own 16 year old daughter, a young woman with endless interests and curiosity, including photography, I could think of no better work to show her at this point in her life.

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Jock Sturges first, not best book, does have some nice work in it

Mr. Sturges first photography book, it shows the style his fans all know and love but as a first effort has a less polished feel to it. I was surprised to see some pictures taken in Rhode Island, the later books seem to consist of France, California and Oregon with no East Coast U.S.
As always with Mr. Sturges books the subject matter is mostly nude but there are several clothed photos here as well, more than will be found in later books. The style is all well done,(many very nice images), the book is certainly worth owning but doesn't seem quite the quality of the books from "Radiant Identities" onward.

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Great Technique, Few Variations

It is evident that Mr. Sturges is a very talented photographer, and this book reveals his admiration and, somehow, his appreciation of his family. Each of these pictures look as if they have not been retouched, and they were masterfully shot.

On the other hand, there is very little variation in the technique or the type of location. Basically, you could see five or ten of the shots in the book, and you have a very good idea of all the content in it.

By the way, I saw this book was tagged as erotica, and if there's something this book is not, it is erotica. More than three fourths of the pictures include someone naked, but the nudes are rather innocent.

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You'll be moved

If you are after pictures for the sexual excitement, look somewhere else. Yes there are naked women and men, young women and men, and even boys and girls of adolescent age, but you'd have to have a pretty sick mind to find them sexually exciting.

Rather on the contrary this are works of art with some of the best printing you'll see in your life (I'd love to see the originals, as I suspect as good as the book edition is, it still doesn't make it justice), with that simple beauty and simple "laiser faire" that is simply breathtaking.

Not All Nude, But All Wonderful

This is what children, young people growing up, and parents with children look like: people in bathing suits, jeans, everyday attire, as well as nude. There are photographs on the beach, in a tree, on a tricycle (one of the best as a photographic design, in my opinion), in hammocks, standing...a whole range of locales and postures.

While it astounds me that anyone could think this wonderful collection is child pornography, I *can* see the concern. There's no doubt in my mind that a genuine pedophile would be attracted to this, and for all the most unfortunate reasons. Still, this is an accurate and sensitive representation of something that seems almost vanished from the world--the innocence of people comfortable with themselves, their bodies, and with each other. Alas, this is our loss.

This collection of touching, humorous, and occasionally beautiful photographs is our gain.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

"In the fifty-eight images of this handsome ... monograph, Sturges sustains a delicate balance on a very precarious wire ... His struggle is to observe and render his subjects in all of their complexities, trembling on the cusp of change. The result of this long-term, communal effort is one of the most clear-eyed, responsible investigations of puberty and the emergence of sexuality in the medium's history, making a metaphor of the metamorphosis from child to adult." --A. D. Coleman, The New York Observer In 1990 the FBI entered Sturges's studio and seized his work, claiming violation of child pornography laws. Citizens, artists, and the media responded with outrage. With The Last Day of Summer, Aperture accords Sturges's vision the dignity and respect it so richly deserves. Essay by Jayne Anne Phillips. Paperback, 9.5 x 11.5 in./96 pgs

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