Robert Stivers has explored the nexus of desire and memory in photographs that are hauntingly erotic. The images published here also possess a mysterious, melancholy quality, and often turn on rapture and loss, eroticism and death. For Stivers, the image is most often about the human figure in space, modeled by light, often reduced to the simplest forms. Embracing the abstract potential of the photograph, the artist mines the subconscious in a performative act of seeing and recording. This, the artist's first book, offers a contemplative visual journey that viewers will have difficulty forgetting. The photographs are accompanied by a forceful and illuminating essay by A.D. Coleman, one of the most respected critics writing about photographic art work today.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
Ghostly black-and-white images (a masklike womans face with hollowed eyes, a crying baby with alien hands) whose theatricality smartly complements their mystery. The New Yorker, September 29, 1997.
Stiverss images of livid figures nearly engulfed by a velvety, almost palpable darkness are both ominous and gorgeous. More theatrical than Bill Jacobsons similarly isolated and soft-focus apparitions, these pictures suggest spiritual visionsdisembodied faces, an ear, a nose, a skeletal hand floating in spaceor a magicians conjured ectoplasm. Most striking here are the photos of animals (an iguana, a frog, an aristocratic dog, a disappearing flamingo)Smokey as Darkman. Vince Aletti, Village Voice Literary Supplement, September 16, 1997.
Robert Stiverss photographs are eerie reveries, dreams in which the face or figure of a person youve desired or loved or hated or have been terrorized by hovers uncomfortably above your body in the darkness. The subjects of his black and white pictures are what look back at you when you stare at your own reflection in a mirror, a store window, or at the bottom of a glasswhen youre drunk, or stoned, or dont have your lenses inand come face to face with something intense and amorphous, thats there and not there, like the fuzzy photographs that argue for the Loch Ness monsters existence. Because our understanding of photography is so wrapped up in the mediums ability to focus and to focus our attention, theres something compelling about pictures that are soft around the edges and not what we expect them to be. Marvin Heiferman, Bomb Magazine, October/November 1997. -- Marvin Heiferman, Bomb Magazine, October/November 1997
About the Author
Robert Stivers (b. 1953) has shown his work extensively in the United States and Europe. His photographs are in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Museum Ludwig, and The Victoria and Albert Museum of Art. The artist currently lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Haunting, mysterious, sensual, erotic,
By Angel Lee "Liocorno Amethyst Moonstone" (Cleveland, OH United States) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)
This review is from: Robert Stivers: Photographs (Hardcover)
This magnificent coffee table book is filled with captivating photos that draw you into Stivers' world. The hazy b/w images range from to erotic and sensual to almost haunting and mysterious.The photographer captures a wide variety of subjects including people of all ages, babies, body parts & single objects. Animals including elephants, birds, reptiles & dogs are also shown. All the photos are printed on one page making it easy to cut them out and frame them if so desired. Plate numbers are listed opposite the photos with a list of titles in the back. My favorite images are those of the women. One is a nude woman holding a knife and another is suspended. I also enjoyed the leopard & ostrich photos. This intense book is sure to please any art collector.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Eerie, cryptic images that evoke strong reactions,
By A Customer
This review is from: Robert Stivers: Photographs (Hardcover)
Robert Stivers work is among the most interesting in contemporary photography. His use of focus (or "un-focus") enhances ordinary images in ways that make them seem surreal and embodying a depth of meaning not otherwise apparent. It is unable to come away from them without some sense of unease. He does not evoke indifference...most are drawn to his work or strongly dislike it.
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