Customer Reviews

Badlands: Photographs

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With this book Gatewood proves himself to be the undisputed master of documenting America's often perverse alternative counterculture. This book is a mixture of cultural anthropology, daring photojournalism, and cutting-edge erotica. It is a retrospective of his work, beginning with early '60s portraits of Bob Dylan, Alan Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs; then takes us through the sexual puberty of New York City in the '70s, it's undoing in Wall Street in the '80s, and brings us into the present with beautiful and haunting photos of the freaks of San Francisco, New York, and LA: e.g. "slave kas" is seen in '90s San Francisco, an eerie but inviting grin on her face as she pulls off her tight vinyl corsette, highlighted by a heart painted on her pierced breasts with blood. This book is a glimpse, nay, so well done, an invitation to a world that few of us ever get to see. This is a conversation starter for sure, and an enduring and timeless book of art.

A great trip through the world of body art and alternate female sexuality. Includes a retrospective of his early work in Greenwich Village. My favorites are the women of San Fransisco, some of them hauntingly beautiful.

Gatewood's pictures are not for those with weak stomachs, but the subjects are fascinating. I especially enjoyed the sections on piercing, tattoos, and modern primitives, although its not about to make me rush out to get myself tattooed or pierced. Certainly I'll be haunted by his pictures whenever I see a fish hook in the future.

Each photo in this book speaks "A thousand words". From the classic photo of Bob Dylan to the hauntingly beautiful raven haired "vampire" beauty on page 418. This book also expresses a tongue-n-cheek sence of humor. It is reminiscent of the Weimar Rebublic of the 1920's. A brigade of debauchery! A collection of social history and sexual diversity. It tells a story of people who need not ask for appologies or excuses.

Badlands might as well be called Charles Gatewood's Greatest Hits, since the book is a collection of his most provocative, creative, sensual, and fascinating pictures. Gatewood's career began back in the 1960s, but his style hasn't really changed that much over the years. It's still black and white pictures of the "forbidden" that drives him, but it's not only sexual subjects that are featured in his work, even though it appears the kinky/fetish scene is his main interest.

As Gatewood himself makes clear during the interview at the end of the book, his ambitions have changed over the years. When he moved to New York in 1966, after having lived here in Sweden (Stockholm) for two years, he started working as a photographer for different magazines, and soon built up a reputation for being the man to hire in case the job had something to do with the shadowland of sex, drugs, and other taboos. In the beginning of his career Gatewood focused mostly on political themes, but as soon as he discovered the great subcultures of New York and San Francisco he realized where his true passions were.

Badlands is divided into different chapters, with names such as Piercing, Tattoo, Mardi Gras, Modern Primitives, True Blood, Wet Dreams, Fetish Girls, and so on. None of the pictures have sexual penetration in them, but that doesn't mean there's a lack of both male and female genitalia. Not one single picture is in color, and that works excellent. Still, the pictures in chapters such as True Blood and Messy, Messy, Messy sure could use some color, because blood simply doesn't look blood-like in black and white. I'm not saying black and white is worse than color (in fact, I think the opposite), but bloodplay gets a whole new perspective if you see something red on the model's skin and not something black.

The book has tons of amazing pictures to look at, but despite Gatewood's expertise the book still has a few downsides. First and foremost, in this case, size does indeed matter. Badlands is a meagre 14 x 19 centimetres, which is more or less the size of a normal Swedish paperback. This is a horrible size, because the pictures are beautiful and deserve to be printed in larger sizes.

I also have a problem with the fact that I get the feeling that "normal" portrait pictures are over represented. There's nothing wrong in portrait pictures, but considering the unique environments Gatewood frequents and the equally unique people he meets I cannot help but to feel somewhat left out when I "only" have a face to look at, no matter how many bizarre piercings or tattoos there are.

However, the greatest problem with the book is the lack of contexts; which unfortunately makes the pictures, no matter how beautiful and interesting they are, feel incomplete. Many of the pictures show bizarre and alternative individuals in bizarre and alternative environments and places, and some text accompanying at least some of the 401 pictures sure wouldn't hurt. But instead, all the reader gets is the name of the model and the place, and what year the picture was taken. This lack of context makes it difficult to fully appreciate the pictures, which truly sucks because most of them are truly masterpieces.

Badlands might as well be called Charles Gatewood's Greatest Hits, since the book is a collection of his most provocative, creative, sensual, and fascinating pictures. Gatewood's career began back in the 1960s, but his style hasn't really changed that much over the years. It's still black and white pictures of the "forbidden" that drives him, but it's not only sexual subjects that are featured in his work, even though it appears the kinky/fetish scene is his main interest.

As Gatewood himself makes clear during the interview at the end of the book, his ambitions have changed over the years. When he moved to New York in 1966, after having lived here in Sweden (Stockholm) for two years, he started working as a photographer for different magazines, and soon built up a reputation for being the man to hire in case the job had something to do with the shadowland of sex, drugs, and other taboos. In the beginning of his career Gatewood focused mostly on political themes, but as soon as he discovered the great subcultures of New York and San Francisco he realized where his true passions were.

Badlands is divided into different chapters, with names such as Piercing, Tattoo, Mardi Gras, Modern Primitives, True Blood, Wet Dreams, Fetish Girls, and so on. None of the pictures have sexual penetration in them, but that doesn't mean there's a lack of both male and female genitalia. Not one single picture is in color, and that works excellent. Still, the pictures in chapters such as True Blood and Messy, Messy, Messy sure could use some color, because blood simply doesn't look blood-like in black and white. I'm not saying black and white is worse than color (in fact, I think the opposite), but bloodplay gets a whole new perspective if you see something red on the model's skin and not something black.

The book has tons of amazing pictures to look at, but despite Gatewood's expertise the book still has a few downsides. First and foremost, in this case, size does indeed matter. Badlands is a meagre 14 x 19 centimetres, which is more or less the size of a normal Swedish paperback. This is a horrible size, because the pictures are beautiful and deserve to be printed in larger sizes.

I also have a problem with the fact that I get the feeling that "normal" portrait pictures are over represented. There's nothing wrong in portrait pictures, but considering the unique environments Gatewood frequents and the equally unique people he meets I cannot help but to feel somewhat left out when I "only" have a face to look at, no matter how many bizarre piercings or tattoos there are.

However, the greatest problem with the book is the lack of contexts; which unfortunately makes the pictures, no matter how beautiful and interesting they are, feel incomplete. Many of the pictures show bizarre and alternative individuals in bizarre and alternative environments and places, and some text accompanying at least some of the 401 pictures sure wouldn't hurt. But instead, all the reader gets is the name of the model and the place, and what year the picture was taken. This lack of context makes it difficult to fully appreciate the pictures, which truly sucks because most of them are truly masterpieces.

Chuck Gatewood has been one of the principle documentors of the social and sexual "fringes." By and large, he's the guy that goes to "mysterious" places that you, yourself wouldn't know about to photograph some fairly "strange" people who do "dirty" things to themselves and each other. For some time now he has provided many a glimpse into a world that is unknown to most, and allowed his audience to view this odd, insatiable world at a "safe" distance within the context of "art."

"Badlands" is an anthology which means it's like the Frito-Lay Variety Pack of Gatewood's work. SOME of it I find to be utterly compelling, visceral, provocative and sublime. And SOME of it I find to be downright contrived, silly, reactionary and obvious. (Sometimes he, as well as the people he photographs leave an impression of just trying too damn hard to freak-out the "normal" people. "Look at me! I'm sooooo BAD!!!")

In all honesty, I bought this book because I used to date the girl on the cover. The idea of taking this book off the shelf and being able to say, "See her? I DATED her! She's NUTS!" appealed to me. And I have a few other friends contained within its' pages. Otherwise I would have skipped it. But you should buy it because it's not a bad book.