Radiant Identities: Photographs by Jock Sturges (Paperback)

Jock Sturges is creating a time-lapse view of a handful of familes. This book is the second in the series, following the superb work called The Last Day of Summer. In this book, most of those who posed for the photographs were asked to describe the experience. Here are two quotes from what they said:

"We are not naked for the pictures, we are naked for the summer, and because we are alive."

"This I enjoy."

The images are done with a large format camera and reproduced in gelatin silver prints. The models often help set up the equipment and suggest scenes to shoot.

Mr. Sturges takes photographs each year, and publishes them. From these images, you can see the subtle changes in the person, how their relations grow with siblings, friends and parents, and the inner core of the person that is unchanging. His subjects are people who regularly practice naturism in Europe and the United States. So he is capturing them as they would normally be.

Taken outdoors usually, the images can acquire an almost lyrical quality. One image in this book deserves special mention. I think it is the best I have seen of Mr. Sturges's work. The image is of Alisa, Christina, Misty Dawn, and Teresa in Northern California in 1993. It shows the young women lolling on misty rocks just above the boiling ocean looking ever so much like self-absorbed versions of the mythical sirens, but with the ease and comfort of sunning sea lions. It is an extraordinary vision of natural joy.

Here are many of my favorites from this remarkable volume:

Unless otherwise noted, you should assume that these were shot in Montalivet, France. Francois 1992; Raphaelle 1993; Bettina 1993; Marine et Maia 1991; Raphaelle, Celine, Alysha et Danielle 1993; Marine 1993; Tamara 1993; Arianne et Sa Mere 1989; Francois et Adrian 1993; Danielle 1991; Danielle, Oud Heusden, The Netherlands 1992; Marine, Clermont-Ferrand, France 1989; Laurel, Northern California 1992; Brooke, Northern California 1992; Cecile 1993; Arianne 1991; Hanneke 1992; Mike and Chicken, Northern California 1993; Christina, Northern California 1993; Danielle, Oud Heusden, The Netherlands 1993; Laura et Lou 1992; Marie et Bettina 1992; Leaham and Layla, Southern Oregon 1981; Maia 1991; Maia et Marine 1993; Brooke, Northern California 1985; Jessie, Northern California 1985; Misty Dawn, Northern California 1991.

After you finish enjoying these tender images, I suggest that you give everyone in your family a camera and go on an annual photo shoot. Although you cannot hope to match Jock Sturges, these images will evoke many happy memories in years to come.

Let the sun shine through!

Simplistic? This is a coffee table book of Black and White images of mainly naked teenage, or at least pubescent, girls.
No, that makes it sound like something thats perverted.

Advisory? Don't buy this if you're offended by the human body!
No, do buy it, and see how natural it is to be nude, or semi clothed!

Historical? Jock Sturges did have problems with the American police who said some of his images were pornographic.
They didn't win, a judge said they were ok.

Summing up: The cover picture gives a guide to some of the pictures inside. There are pictures of nudists, male and female, mainly youngsters luxuriating in the sun in France and California.

Since his famous courtroom victory Sturges has become something of a martyr to the cause of free expression. He has assumed the (indignant) moral high ground and his detractors have routinely been dismissed as censorial (sin no. 1 in modern America), fascist, and/or Christian.

Perhaps much of the criticism is deserved; however, there are still many unresolved uncertainties surrounding his work, many of which are apparent in Radiant Identities. Sturges' work is often described as being predominantly about the innocence of children and the interaction of close families. Yet there is nothing to explain his obvious fascination for adolescent girls, whose images dominate this work. The text does not address this imbalance, which does seem to raise questions best not left to the speculative imagination.

There is, of course, nothing intrinsically wrong with child/adult studies of the nude and only an extreme minority of eccentrics considers nudity essentially immoral. Even in the Christian tradition (and this is an important point as much criticism of Sturges' work has come from the Christian Right) there is a history of artistic representations of the protagonists of the Christian story either nude or near nude. (The crucified Christ is often portrayed in this fashion and naked children abound in depictions of cherubim, etc.) As these images have been venerated throughout the history of the church the religious objection cannot revolve around nudity per sei.

What is perhaps at issue is the society into which these photographs are published, the uses to which they will be put and the photographer's responsibility for their eventual use. I wonder if the children featured (and their parents, who consented to publication) would feel so esteemed at having been photographed by Sturges if they had seriously apprehended that, inevitably, the images would attract the attention of pornographers. I suspect that it is one thing to privately own a photograph of one's young daughter, admired for its innocent beauty, and quite another to imagine that photograph being poured over by a pervert.

It is perhaps an irony that it would only be in a truly moral society (one hesitates to say Christian) that photographs like these could be innocently appreciated (as we are led to believe the photographer wishes them to be appreciated). Unfortunately, we do not live in such a benign world. That is why, notwithstanding the essential beauty of the images, their possession and display will always be a cause of unease.