The Menstuff® library presents books of photography. Updated 3/4/00.
Aperture, The Body in Question. (This
is really a high-class magazine but has more of the appearance of
a coffee table book on photography of the body, so we've included
it here. Our apologies to the photographers and our visitors for
not showing the cover. It is beautiful and should be seen by all.
I hope you understand. - Editor) This issue was on sex and
sexuality and the powerful efforts that are underway to define and
control expressions of sex and sexuality and to reinstate the
traditional family and institutionalized religious practice as
ideals. One can recognize the support that such families and
belief systems, at their best, can provide, and still feel that to
impose any particular way of life as the American norm is to
indulge a repressive impulse. What we are in fact threatened with
is a drive toward a rigid social conformity, with the body as the
pawn, or (as Barbara Kruger has termed it under the Lenny icon)
the "battleground" in struggles between differing conceptions of
public morality and individual freedoms. This issue unabashedly
seeks to explore these issues, beginning with an examination of
gender - the body created and recreated - and then moving through
photographs and texts that consider, among other dynamics, the
body abused, objectified, discovered, aroused, desired, censored,
mythologized, manipulated and celebrated. The images are
corporeal, about the strengths and vulnerabilities of this most
tangible manifestation of personal experience, ourselves, whether
the body in question is a child, a person with AIDS, a victim of
physical violence, or someone at the point of orgasm. Conversely,
many conservative political and religious leaders, nervous that
certain presentations of the body, of difference, challenge their
notion of public morality (Mayor Guillani), seek to suppress these
issues and have launched an attack on the arts in the United
States in such a way as to undermine the First Amendment by
attempting to have conditional (that is, limited) freedom of
expression. Artists' studios are being raided and work
confiscated, NEA grants are being revoked, a museum and its
director are being tried on obscenity charges, and more. In light
of these events, it is not surprising that some of the artists
represented in this publication, particularly those whose work
focuses on children, feel threatened. Initially, a few of them
considered withdrawing their pictures - pictures to which they are
committed, and which they , and the publication, believe to have
integrity and merit. Although the publication shared their
concerns - having no desire to put the magazine and its
contributors at risk - we feared succumbing to them, for what
could be rationalized as an editing decision might really be an
instance of self-censorship, one of the most subtle and insidious
of the possible results of the ongoing assaults on literature and
the arts. Clearly, it is difficult to remain impervious to the
demoralizing effects of assaults by those who so aggressively and
manipulatively cast aspersions on others' convictions, motives,
and choices: working through issues of quality (and what
constitutes an "art" image), elitist attitudes, self-censorship,
and even exploitation became an impassioned process as the editors
considered the images for the issue. Some readers may think we
have erred in our selection. But without the free play of images
and words in magazines, book, exhibitions, and other public
forums, it would be impossible to address and debate the vitally
important ideas involved as fully and deeply as their seriousness
demands. We hope that our audience will take this issue to heart
and mind at a moment when our right to our bodies - to represent,
use, protect, enjoy, and view them - is increasingly questioned
and menaced. Aperture Foundation, 20 East 23rd Street, New York,
NY 10010 (4 issues/year, $36.) Fall, 1990
Arndt, Thomas Frederick, Men in America.
For fifteen years, men have been the focus of the author's street
photographs: men at work, men in transit, men at bars, men in
uniform, men at rest. He describes the photos as "pictures
of...our male family," and in them he documents, through his
unique vision, an Everyman as full of pathos as Arthur Miller's
Loman. He provides an unrelenting look at the often lonely,
sometimes alienated, always eye-catching position of American men
in contemporary society. Men are always looking. For something. He
captures their common expressions and gestures against a backdrop
of ticker tape parades, the New Orleans jazz festival, the
Holocaust Survivors convention, and gatherings of street punks.
These photos bring out the raw dilemma of men and the uncertain
assumption about their new roles in society today. National Museum
of American Art, 1994. ISBN 1-881-616-19-3 Buy
This Book!
Boyer, Paul and Jim Heynen, One Hundred
Over 100: Moments with one hundred north American
centenarians. After interviewing the one hundred centenarians
who enliven this volume, the author observed "Neither one of us
meet anyone who was afraid to die, but we didn't meet anyone who
was afraid to live either." This book will diminish your fear of
aging. These stories will invite your mind to roam in new
directions, for much of what these people say and who they are
contradicts our negative attitudes toward longevity - and a change
in attitude is long overdue. As the author points out, the fact
that so many of today's centenarians live full and meaningful
lives should make us wonder: If we must be terrified by old
age, why not be terrified by its splendor, by the possibilities it
allows the mind and spirit and even, sometimes, the
body?" This is for all ages. In introducing his
subjects, the author states that "it will not be hard to find
yourself in these pages, to find someone whose past resembles your
present and possible future. Everybody seems to be here. The
variety of people should convince all of you that no one is exempt
from the possibility of longevity. Once and for all, you should be
assured there is no one formula, no single
secret." Indeed, as you will see, there must be at
least one hundred. (In 1998, Life magazine reported that there
were 7,000,000 centenarians in the U.S. and by the year 2040 there
would be 27,000,000. Are you ready? Fulcrum Publishing, 1990 ISBN
1-55591-058-0 Buy
this book!
Cook, Mariana, Mothers and
Sons: In their own words. Mother-Son, a funny
relationship. Difficult contacts, mutual respect. He is a
musician. I, a maker-on that level it works. Endless conversations
about invention, pain, beauty, creativity. More complicated
conversations about life, how to live, but a real complicity of
hearts. Suitable for the coffee table and everyone's enjoyment.
Chronicle Books, 1996 ISBN 0-8118-1170-0 Buy
This Book!
Mason, Jerry, The
Family of Children: Childhood around the world - the greatest
photographic collection ever made. This is a wide-ranging,
deep-searching portrait of childhood. The world's photographers
sent more than 300,000 images of the world of the child - of the
natural circle of universality from birth to birth. The circle
encloses the meaningful moments of life and the emotions born in
those moments. Growing up, play, schools, games, religion, music,
work, war. And against them plays the lightning of love, anger,
joy, hostility, despair, wonder, sadness, alienation, hope. The
result, 377 photos from 218 photographers from 70 countries to let
you look at and feel the morning time of life, the unique
qualities and universal experiences of childhood, the kinship of
young people with young people everywhere on earth. And, it great
themes are illuminated by quotations from world literature.
Perigee Books, 1983, ISBN 0-399-50965-8 Out-of-Print Check
Alibris on our side-bar periodically.
Mason, Jerry,
The Family of Man: The 30th anniversary edition of the
classic book of photography created for The Museum of Modern
Art. Photographs were selected from all parts of the world, of
the gamut of life from birth to death with emphasis on the daily
relationships of man to himself, to his family, to the community
and to the world we live in - subject matter ranging from babies
to philosophers, from the kindergarten to the university, from
primitive peoples of the Councils of the United Nations.
Photographs of lovers and marriage and child-bearing, of the
family unit with its joys, trials and tribulations, its
deep-rooted devotions and its antagonisms. Photographs of the home
in all its warmth and magnificence, its heartaches and
exaltations. Photographs of the individual and the family unit in
its reactions to the beginnings of life and continuing on through
death and burial. Photos concerned with man in relation to his
environment, to the beauty and richness of the earth he has
inherited and what he has done with this inheritance, the good and
the great things, the stupid and destructive things. Photos
concerned with the religious rather than religions. With basic
human consciousness rather than social consciousness. With man's
dreams and aspiration and of the flaming creative forces of love
and truth and the corrosive evil inherent in the lie. Over
2,000,000 photographs were reduced to 503 from 273 photographers
from 68 countries. The Museum of Modern Art, 1955
ISBN 0-87070-341-2, and Simon and Schuster
ISBN 0-671-55411-5. Check Alibris.com on our side-bar for
Out-of-Print copies.
Mason,
Jerry, The Family of Woman: A world-wide photographic
perception of female life and being. From the world's
photographers, a piercing look at the changing and the unchanging,
at universal woman and her progress through life. The book looks
at work, at activism, at play, at sexual exploitation, at grief
and death, at love. It looks at how women feel and act with
lovers, friends, parents, husbands, children. It illuminates the
changes that are occurring within the great calm center of what
continues unchanged. Grosset & Dunlap, 1979.
ISBN 0-448-16265-2 Buy
This Book!
Owens, Bill, Suburbia. Bill
writes "This book is about my friends and the world we live in
(circa 1972). In the fall of 1968 I began working as a
photographer for the Livermore (CA) Independent. My
daily routine took me into the homes of hundreds o families and
into contact with the social life of three suburban communities.
The people I met enjoy the life-style of the suburbs. They have
realized the American Dream. They are proud to be home owners and
to have achieved materials success. To me nothing seemed familiar,
yet everything was very, very familiar. At first I suffered from
culture shock. I wanted to photograph everything, thousands of
photographs. Then slowly I began to put my thoughts and feelings
together and to document Americans in Suburbia. It took two years.
The photos in this book express the live of the people I know. The
comments on each photograph are what the people feel about
themselves. Strait Arrow Books, 1973 Cloth ISBN 0-87932-043-5;
Paper ISBN 0-87932-042-7 Buy
This Book!
Perchinske, Malene, Commitment:
Fatherhood in Black America. This is a beautiful book that
flies in face of popular thought that black fathers aren't
committed. Despite however this perception of the absent father is
upheld, many black fathers provide the support, both economically
and emotionally, needed to sustain their families. This book
captures images of this less often recognized parent in fifty
photographs and poignant quotations from the fathers and children
it celebrates. Photographer Carole Patterson has spent several
years crossing the continent to interview and photograph
responsible black fathers. Anthony Barboza has also contributed
imagery. These portraits - young fathers, older fathers, a
great-grandfather, fathers of different levels of the economic
ladder - provide valuable insight into American culture. And,
because of their humanitarian scope, they deliver an important
message to everyone, especially young people, about parenthood and
the obligations and responsibilities attached to it. University of
Missouri Press 1998 ISBN 0-8262-1157-7 Buy
This Book!
Vial, Veronique, photographer & Pam
Houston, writer, Men Before Ten a.m. "I have an idea that
men put their masks on by ten o'clock in the morning, that if you
want to capture what is inside a man, you have to catch him when
he first wakes up." So began the first phone call to
the writer proposing a book that would discover the elusive
aspects of the male species early in the morning while they're
still soft and vulnerable. The result is a celebration of men by
two women who love them intensely - for all the ways they are not
like women. Realizing that she got the best results when she
actually woke her subjects, she began arriving before the
scheduled appointments. As a result, her photos reveal these men
in a way they have never been seen before. Like voyeurs, they
capture the true essence of men from the U.S., France, Germany,
Brazil and around the world. In photos and text, this book reveals
a playful, sexy and honest glimpse of men before they put on their
masks. This was a very enjoyable book. And the reflections by
women about men were so hopeful and caring we included the book
under "Women on Men" also. Beyond Words Publishing, www.beyondword.com
800.284.9673 1996 ISBN 1-885223-19-6 Buy
This Book!
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