E. J. Bellocq: Storyville Portraits
E.J. Bellocq
original publication: 1970, Museum of Modern Art (Little Brown & Company)
reprint: 1996, Random House Inc.
9.75" x 11", 33 plates, 88 pgs.

Photographs from the New Orleans Red Light District, Circa 1912. Preface by Lee Freedlander, Edited by John Szarkowski.

These reproductions were made by Lee Freedlander from the original glass plates. The reproductions in the book are outstanding.

Nude Visions – 150 Years of Nude Photography spotlights the genre of nude photography. The Munich City Museum is for the first time presenting 220 original pictures on this theme from its photography collection, spanning the years from 1845 to 2005. In the course of six chapters, a multifaceted cultural history of nude photog­raphy is recounted. Masters from the respective periods are brought together here – starting with photographs from the early 19th century inspired by sculpted and painted images which in turn drew on antique and Renais­sance models of the idealized human body. More »

The Other Place,
Jeff Burton
2004, Twin Palms Publishing Twelvetrees Press
14" x 12", 112 p.
List price: $75.00

Edited by Ariadne Kimberly Huque
Introduction by Carlos Fuentes
Manuel Alvarez Bravo portrays and presents these women's bodies not to tell us to be content with what the world gives us, not to limit our desire, and not to ask us merely to conform, but to make us a gift of the body in person, a body here and now that does not sacrifice any of its potentialities, none of its cans and none of its nevers. Here they are for anyone who knows how to look: the idea of the feminine body and its negation; the harmony of the body and the soul but also a possible disharmony; the presence of the body but also its inevitable absence; its pleasure but also its pain. --Carlos Fuentes

Born in 1902, Manuel Alvarez Bravo is Mexico's most celebrated living photographer. His far-reaching body of work includes many of the 20th century's most recognizable and iconic images. Collected here is a seductive, timeless, and entrancing sampling of the maestro's nudes, images taken in 1939 and as recently as the 1990s. Sensitively edited and sequenced by Ariadne Kimberly Huque, and with an impassioned and poetic introduction by Carlos Fuentes, this delicate, elegant volume beautifully reproduces some of Bravo's most favorite work, and provides an intimate window through which to view the career of one of the camera's true masters. - publisher

Dreamland,
Jeff Burton
2001, powerHouse Books
7.5" x 12", 160 pp.
List price: $50.00

"Mattress is Greg Friedler’s 4th book. If you don’t know the first set of books (Naked New York, Naked Los Angeles, and Naked London), you should, because they are wonderful. In those books as in this one, Friedler imposes severe limitations on himself, within which he realizes his art. Here, as with that series, Friedler has given himself a strict format. Nude women. A simple constructed backdrop, not elegant, not sleazy; rather neutral, a bare mattress, not luxurious, not overtly suggestive and a more or less self-limited camera approach. He allows the camera to speak with simplicity and directness. He’s chosen a difficult task for himself. For, just by description, he’s dealing with subject matter and situation that could invite criticism of voyeurism, titillation, exploitation, intrusion, submission, domination, and objectification. He avoids all of that. ..."- from the publisher

 "Devoted to nude and erotic photography by women photographers, this new exciting book illustrates the emotional force and sensual beauty of the female body as seen through the feminine lens.

This gorgeous book features the works of some of today’s most important female photographers. More than one hundred images explore themes such as introversion and extroversion, the private and the public. The book examines the distinctly female aspects of erotic photography, and what emerges is a profoundly sympathetic relationship between viewer and subject. And, as a number of these women artists have worked as models themselves, their perspective on this role adds yet another layer to this powerful volume. Strikingly beautiful and elegant, this provocative collection is a lovely introduction to an increasingly important genre." - 40 color, 60 black-and-white illustrations

Preface by Larisa Dryansky
Exhibition catalogue - color illustrations
Language: French / English

"White Women, Helmut Newton's legendary first work, appeared more than twenty years ago. With it's superior mixture of aesthetics, technical perfection and bourgeois decadence it has lost nothing of its potency and attractiveness. Newton's work encompasses a wealth of themes, also embodying facets of the mass-media world of glamour, masquerade and show. Using subtle, yet striking images--like those of Paloma Picasso, Veruschka, Elsa Peretti, Karl Lagerfeld, David Hockney, and Charlotte Rampling--Newton embraces the delicate, natural beauty of the naked female body. White Women is a masterpiece of erotic visual literature."

Forward by Ntozake Shange 
In Black Book, Robert Mapplethorpe presents an astonishing photographic study of black men today. In their diversity, impact, subtlety, technical virtuosity, erotic appeal, and deep humanity, these photographs constitute a stunning celebration of the contemporary black male. -- Soft bound edition available, list price - $29.95, 1988 Griffin Trade Paperbacks

Friends, lovers, confidantes, collaborators-the multifaceted relationship between husband and wife takes on another dimension when the couple are also artist and muse. In The Model Wife, Arthur Ollman explores the imagery and photographic history of nine twentieth-century photographers who used their wives as models over a period of years. He delves into issues of marriage itself and the powerful influences that such a partnership can have on artistic production. Comparisons between the couples and the resulting photographs enrich this fascinating discussion. Following an in-depth overview that includes excerpts from interviews with several of the wives are individual essays and portfolios on each of the nine artists: Adolph de Meyer, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Weston, Harry Callahan, Emmet Gowin, Lee Friedlander, Nicholas Nixon, Masahisa Fukase, and Seiichi Furuya. Each of these portfolios is an extraordinary journey, with revelations not only about the making of art, but about love in all its pain and transcendence-marriage with all its constraints and passions." - 150 duotones, 5 color illustrations.

Bettina Rheims: Retrospective,
Bettina Rheims
2004, Schrimmer/Mosel
12" x 9.5", 208 pp.
(order this book)

 "This impeccable collection of mostly black-and-white masterworks from the last 150 years includes many familiar images, from Edward Steichen's Little Round Mirror, in which a soft-focus model strikes the classic contrapposto pose, to Man Ray's Violon d'Ingres, the long female seen from behind with that instrument's curve gracefully drawn on her back. But so many of the nudes of the last 150 years that are indelibly imprinted in our memories are missing: Weston's studies of his young son, or Imogen Cunningham's self-portraits in old age, or Brassaï's titillating shots of French prostitutes' derrieres, or Robert Mapplethorpe's black men. Rather than an inclusive compendium, this book is a kind of dreamy boy's book from another era, a semi-innocent collection of (mainly) breasts that any intelligent, sentimental male with an eye for feminine pulchritude will enjoy. With the exception of a little light bondage in David Levinthal's Desire series or a characteristically kinky moment from Duane Michals, this is almost a book you could tuck into the family art library. ..."

Thomas Ruff Nudes,
Thomas Ruff
2003, Publisher: Harry N Abrams
11.68" x 9", 160 pp.
List price: $49.95

"Thomas Ruff (b. 1958), known for his deadpan portraits and gorgeous views of the night sky and architecture, is one of Germany's leading contemporary artist/photographers. Among his recent work is an exploration of the internet, that parallel visual universe teeming with sexuality of every flavor and variety. He gathers from that virtual playground erotic and often pornographic photographs that he subsequently manipulates in his computer, making beautiful--and disturbing--artwork from visual material that, for better or worse, is probably more abundant than any other type of image in our world today.

The pictures, which are graphic and abstract at the same time, are accompanied by an excerpt from a forthcoming novel by controversial French writer Michel Houellebecq, whose work is similarly influenced by the sex industry. Reviewing the series in the Village Voice, Jerry Saltz wrote: "Ruff may think these images are analytic or objective, but they're also sweetly, luxuriantly visual...Sex slips into something ravishingly, optically comfortable, and these everyday, off-world images morph into parapaintings from the Planet Love."

Aperture's 1991 publication of Sturges's first book, The Last Day of Summer, came shortly after the FBI's much-publicized raid on his home in California, the confiscation of thousands of his images-- deemed "pornographic"-- and the subsequent rejection of the case by a federal grand jury. Now in its ninth printing, The Last Days of Summer has outlived and transcended that ordeal, drawing both critical and popular acclaim throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, and bringing Sturges well-deserved artistic recognition.

Radiant Identities is the second volume of Sturges's ongoing work. Physically and psychically revealing, these deeply felt images are gloriously natural and wonderfully compelling."

"Magical in detail, these photographs of the people whom Sturges cherishes most are a collaboration of trust and admiration." - 60 duotone photographs.
Soft bound edition - 1993, Aperture, List price: $29.95

"To Weston's eye...the landscape of the human body was an unending revelation of forms both voluptuous and abstract. His genius as an artist lay in his ability to respond to both with equal passion."--Hilton Kramer, The New York Times
Soft bound edition available - 1993, Aperture, list price: $29.95