Customer Reviews

Badertscher (Stonewall Inn Book/Photographer Series)

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Disclosure: I know this photographer and have a number of his works displayed in my home and certainly cannot claim to be unbiased. That said: This is not a book full of "pretty" pictures of boy toys. These images don't glamourize the coupling of gay men. They do haunt, shock and cause the viewer to wonder about the lives of "others" who may not have the same comfort or ethos as we, but whose humanity can still reach us despite our lack of contact with them in our protected lives. Badertscher brings a discerning eye to the subject, having what is clearly a familiarity with his "models'" lives and desires. He gives us a glimpse of those at the edge (or are they?) This book is a jewel at a "bargain" price.

This book has some value but very little. I have to questionthe photography skills of the photographer. True, most of the novelswere far from pretty--which is a minus--but that's only the start of the problem. Many of the poses were awful; the only poses that impressed me where a series of mirror shots, but they would be a lot more impressive if the photographer were not preasant in them. I was not impressed at all by a great portion of the end of the book dedicated to reverse negative photographs; a cheap affect that loses any goodness in the actual picture. And for how in ALL demensions (thickness, and most notably the hight and width) this book is truly a [not worth] the price asked. The shot on the cover is one of only two I found to be excellent, and of only three or four worth anything at all. Don't waste your time or money with this one.

Tiny & trivial book. Don't waste yr time on this little excuse for a book unless it's the only book around on a desert island and you just have GOT to have visual stimulation whilst pleasuring yourself. Your fantasies would likely serve such purpose much better.

Generally my first impression of photography books is wrong. This prooved to be the case with BADERTSCHER which I almost tossed straight in the trash when it arrived. I was frustrated with the second and third sections of the book in which the artist experiments with mirrors and then negative images.

The first dozen or so images are a reprise of work dated 1976-1995. They are brooding and sexy without being very original. The ghost of Mapplethorpe looms large. Oddly, plates 4 and 7, both shots of the same model, apparently in the same session, are dated 1976 and 1983! The rest of the book is given over to recent work.

The middle third of the book, in which the photographer "objectifies" and dismembers his models and himself using mirrors is interesting and worthy but not particularly erotic. The artist may be attempting to create a self-concious remoteness and succeeds in a cool, in fact rather dead, way.

The final section, containing negative images grew on me a great deal with several viewings. After an initial reaction of "I can't see what I want to see!", the sensuous eroticism of these images became more and more powerful. I now feel they are the most original and lovely works in this collection, despite the occassional silly Greco-mythological titles. Plate 41, depicting two apparently remote models, has infinate possibilities. It has the same power and beauty you find in Francis Bacon.

The tiny format works for most of the images which are uncomplicated. it works against the more complex compositions using mirrors.