Digital Diaries [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)

by Eric Kroll (Editor), Natasha Merritt (Photographer), Natacha Merritt (Photographer)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Fresh sin: Her photos reek of sex." -- Eric Kroll --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
A new mode of masturbating into the next millennium Anyone who has seen her Digital Diaries has intimate knowledge of Natacha Merritt. And of her friends, male and female, and her acquaintances as well. But Merritt's favourite motif is herself: she poses almost every minute of the day for her camera, taking photographs of herself in bed, in the shower, having sex with her friend, masturbating with and without accessories, from every imaginable angle and with the camera usually at arm's length.

Face to face with Merritt's photographs one can reflect on intimacy and publicity in the digital age, on narcissism even, or on radical self-exploration with the help of the camera. But this all sounds better as Natacha Merritt herself once put it: in her view, she has found a new mode of masturbating her way into the next millennium.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Taschen (December 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3822838365
• ISBN-13: 978-3822838365
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (60 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #793,751 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Are You Through, Yet?, April 25, 2000

By	Tom Rand (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Natacha Merritt Digital Diaries (Hardcover)

Natacha Merritt's "Digital Diaries" is a one-dimensional tour de force, made possible by the following truism: Sex Sells. Where there is attention to detail and photographic aesthetics in the sexually driven works of other more competent photographers, such as Robert Mapplethorpe and Nan Goldin, Merritt's attention is only focused on naked people copulating and/or masturbating. "Digital Diaries" was published with the sole intent of selling sex, not photography. This is obvious. This is also (and only) why curious viewers will buy the book. The author and her acquaintances are interesting only because their clothes are off. Unlike Nan Goldin's book, "The Ballad of Sexual Dependency", we don't care or think about the people portrayed in "Digital Diaries"; we simply look at them. Therein lies Merritt's lack of depth as a photographer and visual storyteller. Not only obsessed with the need to get her point across visually, "Digital Diaries" also includes musings by the author about...what else, sex. By the end of "Digital Diaries" one can only hope twenty-two year old Merritt outgrows this teenage fascination with sex and self-absorption and finds another hobby.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A raw and honest look into a young woman's sexuality, August 3, 2004

By	A. Sandoc "sussarakhen" (San Pablo, California United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Natacha Merritt Digital Diaries (Hardcover)

Natacha Merritt's Digital Diaries is less an art book of nude photos than a raw and honest look --- some would say peek --- into a young woman's sexuality. It is not just a look, but a visual documentation of sexual experimentation including both a casual sexual situations and more fetishist imagery.

Digital Diaries is also very sexy just like its author-photographer. Natacha doesn't convey a shy personality, but actually comes off as a very liberated and aggressive young woman. Her book is not for everyone and certainly not for someone who doesn't have an open mind. Those who are willing to explore the many faces of sexuality, they can't go wrong by acquiring Ms. Merritt's Digital Diaries.

21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly touching at points, with artistic intent., May 26, 2000

By	D. Mok (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Natacha Merritt Digital Diaries (Hardcover)

Though it'd be easy to lump Natacha Merritt with the rest of the webcam/internet exhibitionists, it took only one examination of this book to make me see otherwise in Merritt's digital photography.

With a maverick's audacity and technical disregard (one interviewer made the humorous remark that Merritt "can't tell an f-stop from a bus stop"), Merritt has somehow managed to discover a visual style all her own that fuses strange angles, simple lighting, unusual placement of her subjects, and introspection into one. The more explicit photos oftimes threaten to de-humanize Merritt herself and her subjects, but those are counterbalanced by some very tasteful, evocative shots that convey the subjects' internal drama.

Merritt makes a better subject than any other person in this book for her own camera. It doesn't hurt that she's gorgeous, but she has two things to her advantage: Expressive eyes, and the unique dynamic of photographer-as-subject. Is she simultaneously empowered and scrutinized by the camera? How often does she know what exactly the image looks like? And which photos are staged? Which ones are taken as a fly-on-the-wall snapshot? Merritt is always interesting as her own subject, and it is telling that the best set of pictures in this book, the "self search" series, focus much less on sexual acts than on self-discovery, examination, and Merritt's relationship to the camera and to her own body. Most of these are close-ups from wildly imaginative angles, shadowy, and intriguing -- the crowning picture is Merritt looking at her own hand in a mirror, contemplating. These pictures tell many stories about the young woman both in front of and behind the camera, and they're beautiful and revealing in a way far beyond the sexually explicit pictures. Most of those do manage to achieve a degree of honesty and spontaneity as well, making them erotically charged.

Accusations of narcissism can't be avoided and Merritt can probably be said to be guilty of it sometimes. But what she produces from her unique work methods is so intriguing, and her revelation of herself as photographer (a rarity in photography) so far-reaching, that this book remains a great fascination. It'd be a shame if it were to be lumped with the usual erotic photography and exhibitionistic endeavours. Digital Diaries has much more to offer.