Spring Broke (Hardcover)

by Nathaniel Welch (Author), Steve Appleford (Author), Evan Wright (Introduction)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"When I first saw the pictures from my older brother's spring break, and seen his videos, I went, 'Damn, that's sweet. I gotta go down there.' And I get down there and that's what it's like: girls flashing you for beads or whatever. If a girl doesn't like the taste of beer, they do a beer bong, and they drink the whole beer in two or three seconds. They know there's not going to be any consequences, nobody's going to find out about it. They're more likely to cheat on their boyfriends, or just hook up with whoever. You don't even see them the next day. It's pretty much an understanding. Nobody's down there for a relationship."

Product Description
Caligula would have understood the depraved decadence and desperate frenzy of spring break - American teens' annual pilgrimage to shimmering shores, where sex on the beach is as much an afternoon activity as it is a fruity cocktail. A festival of sun and sin, of tanned flesh and binge drinking, spring break attracts thousands of high school and college students, who wash up on Florida's shores like schools of breeding salmon, ready to indulge their insatiable apetites and hedonistic desires with total strangers. A native Floridian, photographer Nathaniel Welch has been documenting these rites of passage for four years - and has captured scenes of agony and ecstasy in Spring Broke, his first monograph. Whether it's partying at a kegger on the beach or engaging in group sex in the shower, entering a wet T-Shirt contest or passing out on the bathroom floor, these teens' uninhibited impulses are as absurd as they are disturbing. Yet Welch accepts, and even embraces, these raunchy rituals of extreme adolescence, alloing a strange sense of sadness to pervade. The morning after, broken spirits are left to reflect on their senseless acts, pack their bags, and head home.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 120 pages
• Publisher: powerHouse Books; 1st edition (April 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576872076
• ISBN-13: 978-1576872079
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 9.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #771,471 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Larry Clark + Where the Boys Are, August 6, 2004

By	Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

What's happening to the youth of today? Well, number one, they're having a hell of a lot of fun and you can see the results in Nathaniel Welch's book SPRING BROKE.

One girl has a T shirt that says, "I'm not an alcoholic, I'm a drunk. Alcoholics go to meetings." She looks a bit like the very young Cybill Shepherd, with Shepherd's cockeyed superiority, as though she were in on the joke, even if the joke was on her. Welch is a fine photographer and one wonders how he got releases from some of his subjects, especially the two boys and three girls he photographs making out in the shower. The girls are wearing thongs, I guess to preserve decency, but the one boy's just wearing a backwards baseball cap. When they're US Senators will they be trying to suppress these photos? Who can tell, in another twenty years spring break may be happening all year round and maybe even in the senate chamber.

The funniest photo may be the one of the tiny hotel refrigerator completely filled with alcohol, beer and mixers. You couldn't even fit in a radish if you wanted to.

Potentially an incendiary book, SPRING BROKE plays it cool and doesn't take sides. You have the feeling that Welch, who must be nearly forty by now, has a true love for these kids akin to Larry Clark's. Good work all around.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars whistful and disturbing, March 10, 2005

By	Eric Oliver (chicago, il) - See all my reviews

Despite its title, this is not a "girls gone wild" in hardcover, but rather a series of thoughtful portraits about the desperate and sad reality behind the drunken revelry of spring break. Welch's photos are stark and honest without being lurid or judgmental. The book really captures the whole profane youth culture that is informed more by beer ads and porn films than anything else. Welch is a top-flight photographer and this book highlights his talents to a great degree.

6 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Very Lame Book, June 2, 2004

By A Customer

This is a book of pictures of jocks and women who dig them, getting hammered.

"Yet Welch accepts, and even embraces, these raunchy rituals of extreme adolescence, alloing [sic] a strange sense of sadness to pervade. The morning after, broken spirits are left to reflect on their senseless acts, pack their bags, and head home.

...yeah, right. So why on earth would anyone want a book full of this? "Strange sense of sadness..." sounds like a fancy term for pathetic.

Don't waste your money on this book.