Looker [Hardcover]

Richard Kern (Photographer), Geoff Nicholson (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2008

If the model is the exhibitionist, then I am the voyeur.—Richard Kern

Richard Kern is a post-modernist punk photographer who has worked in New York city rock music and “No Wave” art circles since the 1970s. In Looker, through a series of carefully constructed vignettes, Kern’s models proceed through their daily private lives, seemingly unaware of the camera. Or are they wittingly playing into the obvious cinematic intrigue? The balance of control present in each frame is a powerful and sensual statement.

Looker is thought-provoking in its gentle nature, pastoral tones, and caring reflection of private innocence—but it is also freshly and stunningly erotic, silently exuberant in its portrayal of intimacy and abandon. Richard Kern’s photographs are a peek into a world of mystery and eroticism.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Underground filmmaker, music video director and photographer Kern (Action) has built the latter half of his career on documenting a kind of hipster porn aesthetic, and this latest book, his tenth, continues that trend, with glossy full-color images of women caught, seemingly unawares, in various stages of undress. At their best, the pictures here are simple and effective, as much about the play of light, atmosphere and composition as about any forced notions of sexuality. At their worst, they are simply cheesy. One, an obvious homage to the iconic 70s image of a female tennis payer scratching her butt, comes off as less sexy than clumsy and stale. As might be expected in a book that purports to be created on the fly, there's an abundance of public nudity and crotch shots here-perhaps one of Kern's particular fetishes-and most of the images are in soft focus, as if taken with telephoto lens from behind bushes and across fields. Kern prefers his models natural and disheveled; readers might welcome the lack of make-up and artifice in his photographs-assuming that the essential artifice of reconstructed voyeurism doesn't turn them off, that is.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Richard Kern is a photographer, filmmaker, video director and portrait artist. His photographs have appeared in ArtForm, i-D, Purple, PDN, Flash Art, FHM, GQ, and Legshow. He lives in New York.

Geoff Nicholson has written fourteen novels, including The Food Chain, Footsucker and Bleeding London, which was shortlisted for the 1997 Whitbread Prize.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Abrams (June 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810995301
• ISBN-13: 978-0810995307
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 0.8 x 10.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #397,038 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Not a Voyeur August 22, 2008

By Timothy Haugh TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

There's a little bit of the voyeur in all of us. It seems like Richard Kern is in a good position to take advantage of this and provide an excellent collection of photographs. Unfortunately, this book is a bit of a disappointment.

Part of the disappointment comes from the simple fact that a professional photographer can't be a true voyeur; or, at least, he can't publish those photographs in a book. Geoff Nicholson hints at this a bit it his opening essay. However, Mr. Nicholson also sets up expectations in his essay about furtively trying to take photographs on the street that are not realized in the photos that follow.

That is not to say that there aren't some good photographs in this book. Early photos in a sequence, particularly the photos taken outdoors of a single subject are often quite compelling. They truly seem to capture a person unawares; however, as the sequences go on, and the models get into states of further undress, the pictures are obviously staged, which destroys the voyeuristic quality.

In some ways, Mr Kern is trying to capture something next to impossible to capture well. Still, he manages, occasionally, to capture more than I expected. If his focus would be on what he achieved in the earlier part of the photo sequences here, I think he would have been more successful.

5.0 out of 5 stars the one to buy! October 3, 2011

By michael

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

If you are a fan of Richard Kern's work, especially some of the shoots he's done on the VBS.TV "Shot By Kern" online episodes then you will love this book. A lot of the work featured in this book is of that style, very subtle in its eroticism, very quietly captivating images. The introduction is a very well written short story of sorts about the "modern voyeur" that is very well written and entertaining on a level separate from the images themselves.
All in all if you buy one of Kern's books, I'd say to get this one.

5.0 out of 5 stars open it up... now you are the voyeur! August 16, 2010

By el cranki

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

kern triumphs at this, when you are turning the pages, you are silently hidden on a corner outside the house of a girl you liked so much you started to follow. you are reeling your camera, waiting... SNAP, she is yours.

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars an erotic photography classic September 11, 2008

By A. J. Perrottet

Format:Hardcover

This is a book that anyone interested in photography will enjoy -- the images are playful, inventive and genuinely erotic, wittily toying with our expectations and luring us in with every page. It's also one of the most beautifully produced photo books I've seen in recent years. A real hit.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Well Done October 30, 2009

By Alan Evatt

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This Is A Tastefully Done Look Into Voyeurism Without Any Creepy Thrown In. These Are Images Often Thougt About, But Not Captured By Photography. Bravo !

5 of 11 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars random photography July 20, 2008

By Don Kangol

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

The book itself is excellent quality and very nice to look at, with large full-page or even two page spreads. But the what the author is actually going for is a bit more confusing. Looking at the cover of the book, you're expecting a voyeuristic look into the lives of these beautiful women, but the pics seem to be more random than that. The pics go from very normal and boring, to expected voyeur, to highly unrealistic or voyeuristic pics that seem more like softcore pics for a much more adult type of publication. In conclusion, the book is a beautiful hardback with lots of content, I just wish there was more of the voyeur and less of the boring or the over the top, unrealistic content. Sticking to the central theme would have benefitted the book more.

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Kern April 1, 2009

By Hans A. A. Müller

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Do you belive in magic? Richard Kern is an genres! He is very special in erotic photo. He is very alone in the way of work. He is unique!

8 of 20 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Artsy, maybe, but it's NOT particularly erotic! July 28, 2008

By Pen Name

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Richard Kern is obviously a talented photographer, but I came away somewhat disappointed with this book. It purports to show young women in candid moments in various stages of undress. But one thing it WASN'T was noticeably erotic.

There's an oriental girl shown eating corn-on-the-cob topless. And later she's shown spitting out toothpaste into the sink, also topless. There's a very porno-oriented image of a panty-less girl bending over in a van, exposing her vagina. And another highly un-erotic shot of a girl apparently squatting down in the wilderness to do her business. Also, why the photos of guys in a book supposedly dedicated to showing us beautiful nude women?

On the positive side, there are a couple of photos of girls with other girls that I thought promising. And there's another girl shown in an office setting with a hand on her shapely rear end. It would have been a whole lot hotter had it only been a female hand!

But overall, I would not have purchased this book had I known how weak the overall content inside actually was. It's needlessly crude, and too many of the models are unattractive or in poses that make them appear so.