Photo Sex: Fine Art Sexual Photography Comes of Age (Paperback)

~ David Steinberg (Editor), A. D. Coleman (Illustrator)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Photo Sex offers both an expanded vision of the nature of photography--that fine art photography legitimately includes the subject of unapologetic sex--and an expanded vision of the nature of sex--that sex involves more than sexual intercourse and its attendant foreplay, more than the pursuit of orgasm.

The premise is that each photo in the book is a sexual photograph in this sense. This, of course, begs the question, "What is sex?" a question that each person will answer differently. Photo Sex collectively offers the author/photographer's personal perspective on what is included in the sexual realm--a perspective which is fairly broad.

A wide audience for photography views sex in a more complex, subtle, and interesting way than commercial pornography can offer. This broad audience includes women as well as men, and people of all ages, ethnicities, and sexual orientations who are interested in exploring sex in depth, rather than reducing its complexity and wonder to cliches.

Photo Sex is inclusive in its choice of both subjects and subject matter, with images of middle-aged and older people as well as youth, of heavy people as well as thin, of people who represent a broad range of genders, ethnicities, sexual tastes, and sexual orientations. The photos confirm that all sorts of "ordinary" people are both sexy and sexual.

About the Author

Author, editor, and publisher Steinberg is a leading voice for sex-positive culture, a perspective which embraces and promotes open dialogue around human sexuality, and in his words, "a basic acceptance and appreciation of diverse sexual feeling and expression."

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Down There Press (August 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0940208326
• ISBN-13: 978-0940208322
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #743,583 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars But is it art?, October 21, 2003

By	Michael Smith (Stamford, CT USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a nice compilation of erotic photography from a number of photographers, but is it "fine art" as most folks define the term? I don't think so -- maybe "fine erotic art" would be a more accurate description. Many people will find many of the images pornographic rather than erotic, and a few of them disturbing. Which "few" depends on one's particular sexual preference, habits, experience, etc. -- mine will likely be different from yours. Whatever, this is a volume for lovers of graphic eroticism, not for those looking for "fine art" in the traditional sense -- fans of Roy Stuart or Eric Kroll should enjoy this book, although its images aren't as fetishistic as those photographers'. It's worth the price, if only to add to one's collection, but keep it away from children and folks wearing pacemakers.

One gripe: The reproduction of the images wasn't as good as it should be, with somewhat wishy-washy blacks and whites -- the overall impression of many of the pictures is gray, without the contrast and rich blacks of a true photograph. At the price of the book, I guess this is expected, since great printing costs money, but I was disappointed nevertheless.

Also, many of the images depict what middle-of-the-roaders would consider aberrant sexual activity, so if anything other than straight hetero encounters puts you off, shop for another book. On the other hand, it's obvious from the expressions of the participants that it's all in good fun.

I wouldn't buy this book again, but I didn't return it, either, for what that's worth.

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Steamy & Sexy, October 10, 2003

By	Sensuous Sadie (Beautiful Vermont) - See all my reviews

David Steinberg's book Photo Sex: Fine Art Sexual Photography Comes of Age
By Sensuous Sadie
[e-mail]
www.sensuoussadie.com

In the introduction A.D. Coleman says, "the book in your hands is not just another volume of loosely defined `erotic' photography in which formal nude studies and elaborately staged but fictional sexual scenarios predominate. These are photographs of everyday people-not hired models or professional sex workers-engaged in real sex." "Thank heavens," I thought. I've pretty much had it with staged erotica - the kind where a model stands against a black backdrop in a latex maid outfit and a whip in her hand, the kind rife at what he calls the "tens of thousands of unfathomably popular, hopelessly boilerplate, sex websites," but hardly what I see in real life.

Give me instead what David collected in Photo Sex, "Older people, hefty people, skinny people, people with disabilities-these and more mingle here, linked principally by their acknowledgment of their sexuality as central to their lives and by their participation in these acts of photo sex." Yes, people who look like me, and like my kinky friends. Yes, people like me, who celebrate sex as the core of our being. And Yes, real sex and love and affection, the kind I feel when my lover Griffin looks into me, his hands on me and in me.

The photos are beautiful. Sexual. Alive with hunger. But then, it turns out that this book is about a little more than just that. Coleman goes on to discuss this type of photography as inherently political, saying that, "By its very existence, the range of sexual images being produced opposes the core right-wing dictate that sexual activity should properly be restricted to heterosexual interaction between husbands and wives, without accouterments and with procreation foremost in mind-and that sexual activity should never involve shameless public display."

We in the BDSM community are often reminded not to "scare the villagers," meaning don't let them see too much of our practices because they cannot understand what they are seeing and will use it against us. Maybe that's true, but in another way it so damages us both in the public arena as well as in the private one. There is another part of me, a hunger for my vanilla friends to see me, the whole me, not just the fluff I assemble for public consumption. My vanilla friends have responded in a variety of ways, from mild titillation to a blank look. Even my kinky friend Susan exhorts me to keep this side of myself under the blanket so as not to make anyone uncomfortable by "unconsensually" including them in my lifestyle, or because I might appear to have gone "around the bend with that bondage stuff." She is right in one way though, I also don't want to become one of those BDSM-obsessed people who bore us silly, yammering on and on about their sex life.

I cannot keep it all under the blanket though. The only way to remove the stigma of an alternative sexuality is to educate our vanilla brethren. Speaking openly about what we do and who we are is part of that. It's not that I want to share what I did in bed last night, but rather I want to be free to talk about the remarkable world of sexuality and how that affects my personal and public life. I am hungry for compatriots, hungry to connect on a deeper level about what is meaningful. Sadly, in our culture talking about sexuality is often not acceptable, not to mention alternative sexuality like BDSM. Even when I do find vanilla friends open to discussion, they must start at the beginning as in, "What does that B-D-S-M stand for again?" With that in mind, a deeper discussion of sexual politics is never going to be on the table.

One day my life will have its own generational shift, a shift that like David's book, offers "glimpses of the playful, the tender, the intimate, the affectionate, the delicate, the humorful, even the goofy-sex in all its delicious, constantly shifting intricacy." One day I will be known for all of it, and then I too will be a coffee table book of delicious desserts, easy to taste along with all the other flavors of my inner landscape.

Copyright 2003 Sadie Sez Publications

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Disturbingly Beautiful, September 22, 2003

By A Customer

This book is full of disturbingly beautiful images. Some are erotic, as in--sexually stimulating to the viewer--whereas others are more broadly intriguing. Some images I find upsetting, or funny, or aesthetically evocative. My favorite photographs in the book are those that are full of mystery. If you are interested in the artistic side of sexual photography, or in looking at all sorts of people turning each other on in special ways, this book will tickle your eye bones and finger your mind.