I Hate to be redundant but this book is nearly perfict

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	• Jock Sturges Scalo Publishers, 2000 - 208 pages average customer review:based on 45 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Beautiful photography, very little to complain about.

You'll find some very good photography here, nothing pornographic and mostly well composed. Some of the pictures do seem to me to be oddly posed or taken at too great a distance but basically you've got a great book if you get it.

What is the Message Behind this Work?

Many would say that art needs no message, that it is created simply to enjoy and not to inform. That may well be true most of the time but not for this body of work. We live in a world where, from the earliest age, we are told over and over and over again that we must always be afraid. You can't trust anyone or let down your guard for even a moment because if you do bad things will surly happen. Most of us wear cloths not just for modesty and for protection from the elements, we wear cloths for protection from each other.

By casting their fears aside the young people in this book prove their trust in Sturges. But even more remarkable then that, they prove their trust in us. The models in these photos have placed their trust in you and me and anyone else who might view or buy their images. They trust us to respect them as beautiful and natural and not regard them as lewd, indecent or obscene. Unfortunately not all of us pass the test. Some people believe that these images should be illegal. They consider them harmful for both the models and the viewers. I feel that that is more of a slap at the models and their parents then at Sturges.

I have only one small complaint and one question about this book. First the complaint. Why are images that have previously appeared in other books repeated here? Sturges is an incredibly prolific photographer creating more than a hundered stunning new images each year. There is more than enough material to publish twenty books without any repeats so why give us reruns?

Finally the question. Sturges has shot so many gorgious images of young boys and yet the best of these never appear in his books. In his published works we see a few boys with girls or their parents but seldom alone. A major theme of his work is simply missing. Why is that? Do publishers believe that girls are more marketable or less controversial than nude boys? If they were to publish a book called, "The Young Boys of Jock Sturges," what would the reaction be? I'd rather like to know.

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I Hate to be redundant but this book is nearly perfict

I have treashered my copy ever since I bought one on amazon 4 years ago.
but to let you know what the books like, the modles and the poses are ethereal and the simplisty of the composition seems to sugest a larger more metephorical meaning for each photogragh. I like to contmplat the poseble simbolism of each one. there is a sexuality to many of these pitures, but they are all as far from pornography as you can get. the modles mostly look serios. some of the compositions are oveasly poesed in intresting ways, but many appere casual and candid. they are all black and white .one or two have boys in them also.the reason these pictures are not phornagraphic is that each modles dignaty and identiy is striven to be expresed by Sturges. truly the finest example of what nude photagraphy can be.

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Very good photography

I have the Sturges books and I really like the photography. The body tones and light are great.

People cared for beautifully.

Gerry Badger, in a listing of 250 key photographers, refers to Jock Sturges as the leading photographer of the "natural" nude (p. 170, Collecting Photography, Mitchell Beazley). This is fine, as far as it goes, but is too limited an introduction to Mr. Sturges's work. Mr. Sturges's photography is not limited to nudes. Neither can his subject matter be properly described as the nude or the natural nude. Rather, Mr. Sturges cares deeply about people. He is interested in people - in the whole of what a person is - and his work reflects this valuing. Simply turn to page 114 of the first Scalo book - the book I'm reviewing here - or page 31 or 87 or 126 - this is a wonderfully rich book - to find the definition of a great portrait.

I find that I can go back to Mr. Sturges's books again and again with pleasure and for profit. I look at people differently since meeting the books - with greater pleasure and discernment. Having Mr. Sturges's work in my home makes my house feel more like home. Enough said.

Mr. Sturges's monographs include Jock Sturges (Scalo), Jock Sturges: New Work 1996 - 2000 (Scalo), The Last Day of Summer (Aperture), Radiant Identities (Aperture), Notes (Aperture), and Evolution of Grace (Gakken). The Gakken book is printed too darkly (at least the copy I have is) but I'm grateful to the book, nevertheless, for the images it shares. Those wishing to catch a glimpse of Mr. Sturges's Irish work could look for an April 2001 copy of B&W: Black & White Magazine.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

This is the first comprehensive publication on American photographer Jock Sturges (b.1947) compiled by the artist himself. It is nothing less than an ode to beauty. For more than 20 years, he has been taking photographs of girls growing up, both in his native California and at a nudist resort on the Atlantic coast of France. Nudity in Sturges' work has never been a cheap or tawdry gimmick, rather it is shown as human being's natural state. His photographs are an expression of the trust he has established over the years with the girls and their families. Calmly and almost casually, Sturges observes the aging process of his models. His striking long-term studies chart barely perceptible changes in their appearance, the slow maturing of the female body. Sturges preserves transient states that will never return; graceful forms that time will eventually extinguish. A sweet melancholia pervades Sturges' images as he knows that beauty is not an everlasting state-but a brief moment in time whose essence we should cherish.

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