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 a few quotes from what they said:

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

"We are in the places we love, and Jock comes and joins us for a while."

"This I enjoy."

"In these pictures, we're Jock's people."

"Jock is the artist and we're his collaborators. Each year we get to help make art."

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!


Delicate, profoundly sensitive   November 20, 1998
 11 out of 16 found this review helpful

The latest Sturges work, Radiant Identities, focuses on adolescent youth and beauty with a sensitivity few photographers have been able to achieve, or at least, publish. His work is soft and gentle, yet it does portray a feeling of the budding eroticism inherent in his youthful subjects. Their eyes mirror both their dreams and their youth, the entire work flows with this same special theme that we should all be allowed to remember from our own teen years.


The early Jock Sturges   March 12, 2006
 11 out of 12 found this review helpful

I first came across this book about ten years ago and when I did I instantly became a Jock Sturges fan. But it wasn't until resonantly that I realized just how powerful and deep his art can be. Visiting an art gallery I was stunned by the detail, contrast and the three dimensional quality of Jock's full sized prints. The images you see in his books might have been taken with a medium format camera such as a Hasselblad. Viewing his full sized images, with all their extraordinary detail, you become aware of just what an 8 by 10 view camera can achieve in the hands of a true master. The models seem almost alive.

But this wasn't my only surprise. Many of the images I saw at the art gallery had never been published and I thought that these were Jock's most profound and challenging work. One such print, "Julien et Antoine, Montalivet, France; 2004", really knocked my socks off. We see two beautiful young twin brothers, as naked as the day of their birth, in a bedroom. We know this to be an adult's bedroom as there are no toys or other childish things about, only an adult sized backpack beside the bed. The translucent canopy draped over the large bed and the house plant visible in the upper left corner gives the room a romantic, almost feminine feel. Yet the boys, still a year or two from puberty, seem to own this very adult space.

Antoine is seated on the bed, very relaxed with his arms at his side. Julien stands before him and with an almost sensuous sence of self-confidence he establishes a relationship with us by gazing directly into the camera. His arms are crossed over his chest-perhaps for protection-but, like his brother, he makes no attempt to hide his exposed genitals. His weight is resting on his left leg and his body is shifted sideways in a pose that suggests he is well aware of his beauty and emerging sexuality. This little boy is no longer entirely innocent. He knows that evil exists. He is aware that there are those who would see his beauty as an obscenity and his trust as a come on. We feel privileged that this beautiful boy has allowed us, the viewers, to examine every detail of his stunning body as he meets our gaze without fear or shame. But at the same time we feel challenged. The boy knows that if there is any indecency the fault lies not with him, or with his brother, but with us the viewers. If there is evil then that evil is in us, not him. This picture is worth much more than a thousand words.

If "Julien et Antoine, Montalivet, France; 2004" were to be compressed to the point where it was small enough to fit in a book-or be posted on the net-the stunning technical skill and detail of the photo would be lost and as a result it might well appear pornographic. I felt as if Jock had lead us right up to the edge of the void and then, at the last possible moment, pulled us back to safety. This is surly one of the most beautiful, powerful and potentially disturbing images of the twenty-first century.