Misty Dawn: Portrait of a Muse
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Book Summary Photographer: Jock Sturges Edition: Hardcover Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published) Published: 2008-10-01 ISBN: 1597110744 Number of pages: 168 Publisher: Aperture |
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Book Reviews of the Misty Dawn: Portrait of a Muse
Customer Review: Monumental!
Summary: 4 Stars
Some of the images are breathtakingly beautiful and the quality of the reproductions and binding is excellent. I don't know of anything like this monumental work in the history of art or photography. It deserves to become a landmark and model for future photographers.
The model was a blue-eyed, blond-haired child who often appears magical. Although most famous for the nude portraits, some of the best are when her body is covered. The poses tend to be static, conveying a feeling of summer fatigue or a quiet rather than active child. I don't like the distorted perspective (elongated limbs and even enlarged facial features) in a few of the portraits, but many observers may not mind or even like that effect (apparently due to using a normal lens on a big camera close-up).
Nudity is a celebration of the whole body, and why not celebrate its growth and transformations in youth? The male has more external features to see, but the sudden appearance and relatively fast development of the female breast is a remarkable event to contemplate and witness. Now an adult, the model should write an autobiography describing her thoughts and experiences posing nude throughout her childhood. I think the information might be of even more value than the images. (The brief interview of Sally Mann's daughter and child model, Jessie, published in Aperture magazine was a step in that direction.) I also recommend the photographer's previous books, which contain more text.
A traditional mother recently told me that her two children used to look through the keyhole of the bathroom door to get a glimpse of each other naked. That may be (statistically) normal, but is it healthy? A naturist child like Misty Dawn would probably consider such behavior very strange if not ridiculous. Prohibitions against nudity in childhood promote rather than prevent sexual problems.
How fortunate we are to live in the West where we can enjoy books like this (despite the efforts of religious fanatics and other advocates of moral panic and mass hysteria who want to bring back the Inquisition) - thanks, in part, to the legal battles Jock Sturges has fought for all of us.