Misty Dawn: Portrait of a Muse
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Book Reviews of Misty Dawn: Portrait of a Muse
Book 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.
Book Review: Worth Adding to Your Collection
Summary: 4 Stars
I should begin by saying I'm a fan of most of Jock Sturges' work. Some of his black and white pictures are just terrific, while others I don't quite get and his color work leaves me pretty cold. But when the day comes I can afford to purchase original photographs from any photographer, I intend to purchase several from Jock Sturges.
If you, too, are a Jock Sturges fan, you'll probably agree his choice of Misty Dawn as a subject was extremely wise. The good news is now you can have just about every picture of her he made in one book. I say "just about" because there is one picture I just love that he (or the editor) left out. (For that I deleted half a star.) The further good news is the book is printed to Aperture's high standard of quality (although one horizontal picture is printed on the page vertically, which looks like a mistake).
The bad news is the first half of the book works far, far better than the second half. The pictures are in chronological order (or at least appear to be) and for me, once Misty is married and posing with her husband, it's not so interesting any longer. He keeps revisiting the location with the window and shooting an updated version of the first picture. I have no interest in these only because I never quite understood the first version. (Second half of a star deleted.)
But the first half is great, for the most part. He has some terrific portaits. He has some lousy ones, too. But there are plenty other wonderful ones to make up for them.
Bottom line is: this book is worth adding to your collection.
Book Review: Average - But Worth Getting if a Fan
Summary: 3 Stars
Misty Dawn hasn't been one of my favorite models/subjects that Jock Sturges has used over the years, but I bought this book anway as I very much enjoy his photography and I've liked some pictures of Misty in the past.
Did I enjoy this book? Yes, pretty much. Would I reccomend it to other fans of Mr. Sturges? Yes. But am I particularly excited about it? Not so much. I liked his other new book "Life Time" (which was just released) much better and I highly recommend Sturges fans buy that one from Amazon as well (though Misty is only featured once in it).
I would like to see Jock devote another book to a single model, one found in "Life Time" named Adele. That I'd find more interesting.
About the pictures in this book, they're all up to his usual standard of excellence. If you're familiar with his past work and remember the picture of Misty Dawn and two other girls sitting behind a window with two panes of glass missing... you'll probably find it interesting (as I did) that he brings Misty and those two girls back to that very same window frame about 5 years after the original and once more about 5 or 6 years after the second.
If you're a fan of Misty Dawn, buy this book. If you're just a fan of Jock Sturges in general and collect his books, but you're on a tight budget and are trying to decide between this one and his other new book... buy "Life Time" first and save this one for later.
Book Review: sick
Summary: 1 Stars
Sturges work is child porn packaged as art. Of course this is the trend in society, one only has to turn on tv or look around to see this. But Sturges takes it to a new level. The sick thing is that the highborws around him (gallerys, art rags, etc) are only too happy to make a buck on it rather than calling him on it. But what else is new?
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