Fakir Musafar: Spirit + Flesh [Hardcover]

Fakir Musafar (Photographer)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 189204157X | ISBN-13: 978-1892041579 | Publication Date: April 2002 | Edition: First Edition

The road of body modification, piercing, and mutilation is untraveled by most people, yet it holds an undeniable fascination for many. This book, the first monograph devoted to Musafar’s photography, chronicles this compelling topic in an amazing collection of 140 photographs taken by Fakir Musafar, the "father of the modern primitive movement." A world-renowned shaman, artist, master piercer, and body modifier, Musafar has devoted most of his life to the personal exploration of body decoration, photographing himself and others since the 1940s. Revealing a modernist edge, these photographs are beautifully composed and printed. Their power as images, however, resides in the intense, unexpected beauty of Musafar’s exploration of the spirit/flesh connection.

Editorial Reviews

Review

...Fakir Musafar's personal transformation from nerdy teenager to seeker of transcendental sublimity is measurable in this collection... -- Libidomag.com review by Jack Hafferkamp, May 18, 2002

From the Publisher

If you've ever seen Fakir Musafar's photographs in "Modern Primitives", "Body Play" magazine or on television programs, you must get a copy of his coffee table art book. After 50 years photographing his own body play and the play of others, here is a deluxe retrospective collection of amazing images you'll find nowhere else... 296 oversize pages, three pounds worth! This book is a "must have" for all serious body modifiers, tattoo and piercing enthusiasts. A collectors item.

Spirit + Flesh graphically illustrates a broad spectrum of physical experiences: bondage, sensory deprivation, tattooing, piercing, fetishes, body rituals and modifications from 1948 to 2002. Introductory text was written by Mark Thompson, author of Leatherfolk and similar esoteric works.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 184 pages
• Publisher: Arena Editions; First Edition edition (April 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 189204157X
• ISBN-13: 978-1892041579
• Product Dimensions: 11.8 x 9.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,818,063 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Libidomag.com review by Jack Hafferkamp, May 18, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Fakir Musafar: Spirit + Flesh (Hardcover)

...Fakir Musafar's personal transformation from nerdy teenager to seeker of transcendental sublimity is measurable in this collection from brave little Arena Editions. With knots, corsets, tattoos, piercings, suspensions and body modification tools not easily describable, Farkir goes where few dare.

Be forewarned, this book, beautifully designed and realized as it is, is disturbing. If you think Robert Mapplethorpe went too far, this is probably not for you. The images we run here in the Libido Review Gallery are on the cuddly end. Others in the book make me wince no matter how often I see them.

Not all of the images in this book are of Fakir, but most are. And this is as it should be, because it is clear that Fakir is the centerpiece of his own universe, in which the TV idea of the makeover is taken to an extreme hard to imagine without seeing it.

After the initial shock wears off, one can't help but wonder why, one would want to poke very large nails into one's self or hang one's body from giant hooks like so much cattle carcass. Why would one do this to one's self.

The answer is found both in the photos and Mark Thompson's excellent introduction. For me the question turn on the point at which performance art becomes a public spiritural quest. For Fakir, pain is a portal to the divine; he has turned himself into a "technician of the sacred," using his own body much the same way flagellants from a variety of religions use pain to seek the divine.

The only difference is that Farkir has documented his experiments with a photographic artists's eye.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spirit + Flesh showcases the photography of Fakir Musafar, May 15, 2002

By 

Rae Schwarz "post-modern Renaissance woman" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fakir Musafar: Spirit + Flesh (Hardcover)

When a young 13-year-old named Roland first began experimenting with body play in South Dakota, he carefully took and developed pictures of the rituals he was imitating from books and National Geographic magazines. Nearly 60 years later, this boy is now a man named Fakir Musafar, who coined the term "modern primitive" and who teaches piercing and leads shamanic rituals in northern California and around the world.

Collected here are images Musafar has taken of himself and friends as they have experimented personally, using body modification methods as a way of exploring themselves and as an alternative to other methods of achieving altered states of consciousness for spiritual growth. This is a high quality publication, the first monograph focusing on Musafar's photography of these journeys. Many of the images are intense, closeup and highly personal. For those unfamiliar with modern-day body modification, some of the images (body piercing, kavandi bearing, ball dancing) may be shocking or uncomfortable.

In the past, Fakir contributed to underground publications, or produced his own small books, or his more recent magazine "body play" as a way of showing his art and photography. Even if you have been seeking out and collecting these random small publication, this is the definitive collection of this artist's work. These images are powerful, intense and unexpectedly beautiful.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, April 12, 2003

By 

Cheryll Morais (Kansas City, MO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fakir Musafar: Spirit + Flesh (Hardcover)

This book is very well made. It was not exactly what I expected but I was not disapointed. I was hoping for more piercing pictures or scarification or suspension but all in all it is still fun to look at. I think if you are into bondage it is a good book for you. I myself am not but I still found the pictures inspiring.