Book Description

Reviews (8)

Don't buy it, you'll become an addict.
I didn't feel like spending lotta bucks in "full" New York Girls, so I ordered this "pocket edition".

Well this is so damn good, that the next day I bought the complete edition ;-)

So, if you don't want to expend extra bucks, just buy the full one...

An excellent pocket book

Wonderful work
There are very few that can pull off flash photography like Richard Kern. Although some of the models were a little too bland to pull off the subject matter, he shows us some gems that make buying the book worthwhile. What you get from his flash work in this book is the starkness of the themes, and the sense that these could easily be home photo's taken by you or me.

Duh...
Richard Kern's work explores sexual interests of a different stripe-- these images are not for the unimaginative or easily placated viewer. If you're interested in erotic photographs of intense, interesting (and possibly insane) women in a variety of unusual situations, this book is for you. If you're looking for "the girl next door" (whatever that is), go get a Playboy.

Fetish As a State of Mind
At first glance it is tempting to see Richard Kern as an imitator of Eric Kroll. This is hardly the case, but the comparison is inevitable. Both are New York photographers who specialize in fetish work, primarily photographing women. Both have a good sense of graphic imagery. In truth, though, the similarities end at the surface. Their intent and approach are radically different.

Kroll has a strong background in commercial and fashion photography which gives his images a more glitzy, mainstream look. Kern came to New York and immediately fell in with the extreme sex crowd. He spent his early years publishing little, Xeroxed magazines and making short films with such dark stars as Lydia Lunch, Nick Zedd and Cassandra Stark. In a sense, "New York Girls," marks a shift closer to mainstream fetish work.

These are harsh, revealing images. His color work reminds me a bit of Nan Goldin, but his black and white images are uniquely his own. The sexuality is blatant, sometimes erotic and sometimes not. There is a profound alienation in his images. These are people being sexual to and for themselves. They rarely meet the viewer's eyes. When they do face the camera it is to issue a challenge, to dare the viewer to cross the line into a solipsistic universe of tension and release.

Many of the photographs are haunting. There seem to be layers of content that keep the viewer's attention for hours. If you haven't encountered Kern's work before or a looking for the right collection of fetish work you will find this and excellent introduction to photography's more challenging visions.

High Expectations
The concept was excellent, but the execution is disappointing. Maybe the format is just too big, as the size itself drew my attention to the mediocre photography, rather than the otherwise interesting commentary on pop fetish culture. If the intent was to lend immediacy to the subjects though casual photography, it failed, because the models were clearly posed. The style of photography may have work with unposed models (as in Kroll's photography) but it didn't work here. ... Read more

Book Description

One of the most transgressive of American photographers, Richard Kern makes brazen portraits of enticing nude women. But if his photographs easily cross over into the world of pornography, they are distinguished from prosaic porn by their beauty and, more importantly, their treatment of voyeurism as a theme. As Kern once said, "The best part of anything is watching," and through his photographs, he not only seduces the viewer into looking but forces a subsequent recognition of his or her own voyeurism. This publication presents a new series of black and whitephotographs.

Essays by Geoff Nicholson and Sabina Spada.

Paperback, 180 pages, 150 b&w images. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Black, White, and Noir
This volume could also be called 'The Best of Richard Kern' as it presents a review of his work ranging from 1976 to 2001. Covering a wide range, we find bondage shots and girls with guns, as well as girls in the bedroom, bathroom and other scenarios, presenting an overview of Kern's interests and low-key fetish work.

Perhaps the strongest pictures are the close-up portrait shots, where the models reciprocate your gaze, as though daring you to enter their slightly dark and edgy world. In one shot, a small lizard crawls over a model's face, in the stark monochrome looking almost like a tribal tattoo. Most striking is the picture from 1993, simply titled 'Monica with Candle'. The model tilts her head backward and a lighted candle protrudes upright from her mouth. A very arresting picture the first time you see it (why that was not used on the cover is a mystery. Too provocative maybe?) Certainly a deeply erotic image.

Like all the best books of photography, this one starts well and gets better the more you look into it. A good one to keep on the bookshelf and delve into from time to time, and well worth buying.

Maybem, just be careful
Might be worth the price as long as you don't get it from used Marketplace seller, MORCAP, this person is a cheat, will take your money and not deliver the product

Noir? Perhaps in that it is all black and white. . .
Richard Kern here has presented a fine collection of photographs. Though his style, at least in this presentation, seems to be mostly snap shots of ameture models; there are some nice shots none the less.

The Light of Kern
As a young man I have been searching for the perfect woman and theres no such thing. But Kern captures both a meaningful persona and porcelain like femininate in his photography. And this book delivers all expected from Kern and more, its better than New York Girls and thats hard to do. This book deseves to be on even the Queen of Englands coffe table but I for one will keep it hidden away as a unsering boy may hide his chocolete easter eggs from his anoying sister. (ABLOL) ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Boring material.
There is nothing special about this book. Kern's book "Model Release" was much more original!

Wrong Book Listed
The paperback book by Demetrio Paparoni is NOT the book Model Release but another book altogether. Don't buy this book if you want a copy of Model Release. ... Read more

Book Description

There's something odd about Richard Kern's most recent photographs. They're so fresh.

These are not typical soft-porn photos of the look-at-me-so-young-and-sexy variety. From bondage to leather to latex to guns, Kern is known for incorporating all of the elements of fetish imagery into his photos. These days, though, his girls are less equipped. They also smile a lot.

Kern, long involved in the New York punk scene, has gained recognition not only for his photography but also for his underground short films of the 80s and 90s (in 1994 he also wrote and directed a video for the alternative rock group Marilyn Manson.)

This volume features Kern's recent work, a testament to the new phase in his photography. Saturated colors and bright atmospheric lighting accentuate his pretty-but-not-perfect young nude subjects. Still sticking with the "no airbrush" motto, Kern's unpretentious, honest photos draw the viewer in close; sometimes it almost feels like you're right there. Imperfections galore, these sophisticated snapshots show it like it really is. Fans of Kern's previous work will find this new direction refreshing. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Ordinariness illustrated
Check out this blurb on the back cover: "There exists an ordinariness in Kern's images that is disconcerting and that ultimately undermines any masturbatory potential or intent". The ordinariness is indeed perplexing. Masturbatory concerns aside, this book has no aesthetic potential or intent either. The pictures seem to be a random selection of cheap Web porn, ranging from the tedious to the vulgar. There are a few better ones, but nothing that you will not forget after turning the page. The book is badly designed and the printing quality is mediocre. You will not keep it in your hands for more than a couple of minutes or pick it from the bookshelf more than a couple of times.

Happy and sexy photos.
Unlike many nude photos, these models often seemed to be having fun. From the front cover where two young babes are arm wrestling to the back cover where two girls are holding hands as they wave to someone, there are many happy yet sexy
photos.

The Fine Line between Art and Pornography
I bought this book without any predisposed notion of what it might contain. I read several reviews of Kern's work, which raised my curiosity level to the point where I arbitrarily decided to acquire one of his books. .... However,...there is a distinct quality to some of Kern's rather stark photographs that transcends anything that you would find at the adult bookstore. One can't help but admire the fact that he uses some very ordinary women as models who are shown in very ordinary contexts, blemishes and all. It's difficult to be "titillated" by what I consider to be Kern's frequently blunt approach to presenting the female body. While viewing the photographs in this book, there were times that I felt like I was receiving a visual biology lesson, while at other times I felt like a voyeur. In that regard, I suppose Kern has succeeded in challenging the viewer's pre-existing perceptions of the female body, and perhaps women in general. In a broader sense, it would appear to me that Kern challenges the definition of art, and blurs the border between it and pornography. Model Release is not a coffee table book, and it's not suitable for anybody who is even moderately immune to being offended. But with an unbiased attitude, the reader may be able to gain a better understanding of Kern's personal artistic vision.

snapshots parading as art
If you cut out two thirds of this book it might be worth the money. This concept of snapshot photography passing as the new art form is beginning to get real old. Wake up and smell the coffee people, Nan Goldin's fifteen minutes is up. In fact, it's been up. If you really need to pay (price) to see unattractive people do unattractive things, here it is. Now, with that said, the other third of this book is interesting. It would have made a nice little book for (price).

How special is this work really?
There is no blurring, no grey area about the status of this book: it's porn. The question is not whether it is art in the alternative to porn, but art as well as porn. But its status as porn is beyond doubt. For one thing, it helpfully admits it. There is also the introduction by Lucy MacKenzie that, whilst doubtless sincere, reads like the validatory (always female)editorial of a porn magazine. However, as porn, it is actually relatively tame. Anyone buying it as porn would probably be able to get more satisfaction from cheaper top-shelf sources. Once it is accepted as porn, its other qualities, good and bad, can be more properly examined. All of the pictures are nicely presented, although the facing page lurid block colours tended to detract or influence the images - was this intentional? The labelling is not always clear, which is irritating if the work is to be treated at all seriously. It does not compare well with Ewing's collection "Love and Desire". There are some excellent pictures which show real character on the part of the models, though often these are the "off set" shots such as "Lisa strips". The best parts of the book are where the pictures are presented as a sequence. For example, there is a "block" of images of Ms MacKenzie, culminating in a (fully clothed) image that will shock many. But even here there are pictures of Lucy at the beach that do not make sense except as "other pictures in the portfolio." The reader looking for a "deeper" level to this collection may be forced to the conclusion that such is really all it is - a snapshot album. If we look too hard for the deeper level ... why is one of the first shots apparently of Lucy MacKenzie at a very young age wearing a brace? Did anyone else feel uncomfortable looking at "Kirsten's tie"? It has the qualities of looking at Schiele's pictures - is the artist commenting on or delighting in the situations presented? But the images generally lack Schiele's definite statement. It is not Sally Mann. It is not David Attie, whose "smiling nude" does tell us something about self-presentation. It is an interesting work, but flawed, and sadly possibly nothing really special. Like most porn. ... Read more