Cross (Hardcover)

by Kelly Klein (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Like the photos of crosses in this abundant collection, author and photographer Kelly Klein manages to illuminate the intersection of two edges. On one edge, she brings forth reverence for this ancient symbol of Christian devotion and sacrifice. On the other edge she dares to dally in irreverence, not allowing her vision to be muddied with Christian dogma, etiquette, or protocol. As a result, she presents the cross within a telephone pole as respectfully as she captures the cross that dangles from a nun's habit. In a stunning piece of double photography, we see Malcolm X's FBI file overlaid across his mug shot. Blend the two images together and there's a cross stamped across his heart like an ominous target.

While conservative Christians will no doubt find some of the images offensive, most viewers will find them simultaneously beautiful and unsettling. In fact, the cross is meant to be a symbol of contradiction, notes Kelly Klein in her introduction. "Even within Christianity it is paradoxical: an image transformed from an instrument of torture and death into a symbol of hope, life and love." --Gail Hudson

From Booklist
Photographer and fashion designer Klein's eye for the fetching image is good and intelligent. The photographs in this thematic album, most of them printed to fill an entire 10-by-12-inch page or two, seem selected for beauty's sake and to emphasize the cross as both form and religious symbol. The cross is implicit in the human body: stand with feet together and arms at right angles to the torso, and you are a cross. Time and again, that physical fact invests a particular photo with meaning. A bare-chested young man pulls a leather helmet over his head; a cross of light glimmering through the mask's nose aperture is echoed by the youth's upper arms and torso and, hovering over his apparently purposive gaze, conjures the militancy of a crusader. Virtually every picture, black-and-white or color, fashion photo or documentary snapshot, is as dramatically suggestive, though often more subtly, and as ponderable. This is photography as theology. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Callaway; First Edition edition (October 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 093511243X
• ISBN-13: 978-0935112436
• Product Dimensions: 12.3 x 10.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #894,432 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sacred and the Profane, August 22, 2001

By	Jeremy Garber "urbanmenno" (Elkhart, IN United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Klein's eye for beauty and diversity shows through in this eclectic collection of cross-like images from every walk of life. Telephone poles, ornate crucifixes, and yes, human nudes display one of the most profound and most ignored symbols of our century. If you have a spiritual hunger, an interest in art, and a mind open to possibility, get this wonderful collection for your coffee table and prepare for fascinating conversation ahead.