Customer Reviews

The Passionate Camera: Photography and Bodies of Desire

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This is the perfect introduction to recent 'queer' photography - great essays, images, and more. So much I'd been looking for, all in one place. Smart, up-to-the moment, and diverse. So many great artists, some well-known and some not.

There's some great stuff in this book, especially writing, so it's a pity that so much of the art is so studenty, weak, embarrassing. Self-indulgent to the max. There's a wierd conflict between a more academic, didactic photo/text program, and a more arty thing that leaks out the edges.

Good reads include R Meyer on Mapplethorpe, L Kotz on Nan Goldin, D Joselit on Mark Morrisroe, Thomas Waugh on physique photo, K Brooke on Berenice Abbott, and more. I wish there was more historical work: Florence Henri anyone?? And I wish the guys didn't get so into the sensational "d&a" stuff -- it's embarrassing, especially when the art is so clunky, clunky, clunky.

A wierd thought: many of the guys are academically-trained art historians, and almost none (?) of the women are. What does that say?

A lot of fat could have been trimmed, leaving a leaner, tighter, and cheaper book. Nonetheless, it's about the onlything out there, and I'm glad to see that Routledge is still alive and kicking.