Customer Reviews

Richard Kern, Action

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

While the second review here is accurate -- and let there be no doubt, many of the photographs in Richard Kern's Action are indeed porn -- it is the first review that tells fans of Kern's work what's in store: This book is an erotic masterpiece. The photographs themselves are marvelously composed and beautifully lit. And the young women Mr. Kern has lensed are remarkably sexy and sexual. Yes, there are shots of women urinating and doing other naughty things for the camera, but, alas, that is what many of us enjoy viewing. In short, Richard Kern's new book is stunning, and those who enjoy his kind of work will not be disappointed. A superb volume, this one.

The evolution of Richard Kern continues. His new book, Action possesses that quintessential pizzazz that runs throughout all of his work, but it nonetheless has its own unique and wonderful flavor too. Kern has always been attracted to the atypical model - he was photographing girls from the "suicide" genre long before it became fashionable - and his affinity for sexy, young ladies continues.

Within the 280 pages of Action there is a subtle yet piercing element of fetishistic sexuality. Panty clad young sirens drop their bottoms, there's toe-sucking, spread shots, and other forms of tainted affection. All presented in that infamous Richard Kern style. Fan's of Kern's work will find numerous reasons to fall in love with his breathtaking vision all over again. And there's an hour-long DVD too. Action is a can't miss!

For the price of the book I wasn't expecting perfection, but I was amazed with the quality of the book itself.
The photography is top notch, the models look great without being the supermodel type, the posing is edgy so not boring.
In fact the free DVD Alone, is worth more than I paid on Amazon for the book.
Highly recomended.

I was expecting more from this book. I am usually more fetish photgraphy oriented and was not expecting such "penthouse" type pictures. I was expecting something further from your everyday erotica. This being said the book does have its moments with lighting and composition. For a more varied look at this type of photography I recommend Taschen's The New Erotic Photography wich caters to varying tastes. Not a disappointment no matter what your flavor is.

Taschen is an outstanding publishing house,continuously bringing works of popular culture to its readers.
Opening up new worlds to its admirers.
Richard Kern is a photographer - a photographer that shoots stills - makes movies.
Some might say that in this part of his life he is an artist - some may say a pornographer.
I will say that to me he is neither - he is just an ordinary guy intrigued by the private lives and intimate deeds and desires of his women and then takes the extra-ordinary action of trying to capture their private lives on film.
A voyuer who wants to share his work with the world (or at least with like-minded individuals).
He is a mature adolescent - retaining his boy-like fascination in the opposite sex - a real curiousity.
He likes to record his women - his girls - exploring their sexuality - discovering their preferences - teasing out their otherwise private responses.
Whether he is teasing out his subject's own honest action or just their reaction to the camera - only he and they know for sure - either way it looks pretty good to me.
This book shows a progression from his original (somewhat contrived) hipness, recorded in other publications elsewhere, to a purer, truer more honest simplicity - an honesty I find sometimes lacking in other photographer's work of a similar genre.
And this book is further enhanced by the surprize inclusion of a DVD compilation of his women in action (hence the publication's title, I guess)- with a soundtrack by another of eternal youth persuasion - Thurston Moore.
Now I am led to believe Mr. Kern wanted this edition to be a little closer to the edge and published under the title 'Hard' but his publisher talked him out of it - so this book may not be exactly what he originally envisaged - but it sure hits the right spot for me.

Very elegantly done with a close eye to the feminine with respect and humor. Photographs showed playfulness and intimacy at the same time. I am looking forward to view more of his work.

I bought this because it was a good price and had good reviews. It should be made very clear that this is more fetish than straight-up erotic photography.

It focuses heavily on feet and has quite a few pictures of pissing. It had one single image of a man's penis and it was between a girl's feet. Many of the models had unkempt pubic hair and/or hair everywhere including under the arms.

The models were all average to unattractive in looks but there were some cuties.

It must be some kind of European style but it isn't as erotic as I had hoped but it was intriguing nonetheless. I actually liked the reversable book cover quite a bit.

Richard Kern loves beautiful naked young girls. So do I. So I thoroughly enjoyed his book "Action". As always, the young ladies are beautifully photographed and appear to be in various stages of barely controlled, but somehow casual, heat. Not for prudes or squares. Very lovely, very erotic. The live action dvd is a fun plus.

basically a book of poorly shot pseudo porn passed off to be art.

while i love kern's short movies from the 80s and 90s, this book is nothing more than garbage to me.

Kern has succeeded in the difficult task of making a collection of nude photographs relatively boring. These girls - and I say girls because they mostly appear to be in the 19-25 age bracket - just don't have much charisma or sexiness about them. The eroticism is too self-conscious and staged to be truly erotic, and the girls are too young and ordinary to convey a sense of powerful female sexuality. Some may find girls playing with sex toys or urinating for the camera to be stretching the envelope, but it just bores.