Will Mcbride: Coming Of Age (Aperture Monograph) [Hardcover]

Will McBride (Photographer)

Book Description

Series: Aperture Monograph | Publication Date: June 15, 2005

A chronicle of the struggles, bravado, and irrepressible sexuality of young men. Will McBride, an American who has spent his adult life in Germany, has made one of the great extended photographic portraits of male adolescence, created over the course of his forty-year career as a photographer. In his studio work and in his reportage for such magazines as Twen, McBride has focused on young men as they come to terms with their inner and outer development. McBride creates a portrait of the young male that is more revealing than those available in countless books, plays, movies, and television shows. In his work, young men discover the power of their own sexuality, fall in love, suffer the imposition of the regimentation of study and religion, seek comfort, flaunt their courage, and play with the unfettered, goofy energy of boys. Clearly made in collaboration with his subjects, McBride's photographs are as telling and sensual as they are unforgettable.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Guy Davenport has been called by The New York Times "one of our most gifted and versatile men of letters." William Simon, a professor at the University of Houston, specializes inadolescence and sexuality.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Aperture; First Edition edition (June 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0893818534
• ISBN-13: 978-0893818531
• Product Dimensions: 11.9 x 9.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #686,525 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A photographic journey through childhood, January 2, 2001

By 

Richard Harrold (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Will Mcbride: Coming Of Age (Aperture Monograph) (Hardcover)

In no particular order, Will McBride presents to us a vision of childhood and youth, exposing its innocence, ennui, pride, exhuberance, despair and its loss. At first glance, this book may appear to be just a collection of portraits of boys in a variety of situations: some nude, some at play, some with family, some lost in their own thoughts. But in each photograph, McBride has managed to capture those emotions I listed, and more. None of the nudity is contrived nor is it exploitative. In some you can see the diffidence and anxiety in the subject, while in others you can see a nonchalance in the boy's posture exposing what? Trust in the photographer? Or the cynicism born out of some other, previous experience?

An excellent collection created by a photographer with an exceptional eye.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Quiet and Stormy Rituals of the Rites of Passage, December 30, 2005

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Will Mcbride: Coming Of Age (Aperture Monograph) (Hardcover)

The progression of boys to men is a treacherous road of physical, hormonal, social, psychological, and spiritual struggles. It is also a path strewn with glowing discoveries, hope, wonder, and awe. In this fine book those rites of passage are well captured not only by photographer Will McBride but also by writers Guy Davenport, whose introductory comments are insightful and tender, and by William Simon whose Afterward places the journey in fine context.

Yes, this is primarily a picture album of boys being boys, whether costumed in the regalia imposed upon them by society or in the raw as nature created them. McBride's work represents years of photographing boys of all ages and the results are action photos and studio shots all of which celebrate the masculine form as it grows from childhood innocence to post pubertal sensuality. There is joy here as well as eyes filled with doubt or fear, all of the emotions that suffuse that period here called 'coming of age'.

While many may ignore this book as merely a 'skin book', this is a book with both a visual and verbal message and as such it is an important addition to the library of human sexuality, of human growth, and of the wonder of the arrival of an adult male. Recommended. Grady Harp, December 05

45 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An interesting collection of very varied photographs., October 9, 2001

By 

ch0pper "ch0pper" (SOUTHAMPTON, Hampshire United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Will Mcbride: Coming Of Age (Aperture Monograph) (Hardcover)

This is an interesting if slightly perplexing collection of photographs. I guess that the authors aim to present images of young boys making the difficult transition to young adulthood has been shown, but with a non-cohesive sense of place. The presentation of young Indian boys towards the centre of the book comes in sharp contarts to the images of West German boys elsewhere. Indeed, I felt they were out of place and opportunistically placed. Almost as if the author suddenly found this odd set of pictures he'd taken years ago and thought "I could use some of those here".

The collection ranges from candid photgraphs to rigidly posed studies, some of the latter being amongst the most haunting I've ever seen. There truly can be beauty in the peri-pubescent and adolescent male. I know some people have claimed that this book has been produced to satisfy that strange group of people who call themselves "boy-lovers", and it may indeed appeal to such people. However, lovers of the male form more generally can gain from viewing this collection, and trying to understand the context in which the photographs were taken. ....