The Body: Photographs of the Human Form

by William A. Ewing and EWING WILLIAM A.

Book Overview

From 19th-century erotica to the publicized images of the 1990s, photo curator Ewing offers a rich, involving archive of images culled from worldwide collections that presents an exciting, provocative... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0811807622
• ISBN13: 9780811807623
• Release Date: October 1994
• Publisher: Chronicle Books
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 2.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 6.0" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Beautiful selection and history of the body

I have hundreds of books on photography, but every so often, I come across one that becomes a valuable reference for so many reasons. This book is a beautiful collection from a huge array of artists and periods about one subject - the body. If you are interested in this book, I would suggest: "Love lust and desire" from the same publishing company. High quality at a very reasonable price.

Great imagery

You already know it's great. The promotional shot for the 1995 movie "Showgirls" is a blatant imitation of this book's cover photo (Tono Stano's 1992 "Sense"). If imitation is the sincerest flattery, that's a pretty high-profile compliment. Despite its title, this is more a study of photography than of the body itself. Ewing reproduces images from the last 150 years, in many technologies, for many purposes. There are medical and microscopic pictures, pictures to titillate, and "freak show" shots. There are the pseudoscientific Victorian images of habitually nude Africans - often, racially based excuses for some drawing-room smut. There are modern abstractions, utterly literal but somtimes so baffling in composition that I can't figure out what I'm looking at. The images are individually captivating, and even stronger in this well-made collection. About half the bulk of the book is explanatory text, however. I have to admit that I skipped most of that. The few fragments I did read added very little to my understanding or appreciation of the photos, so I let it go by me. This is a beautiful celebration of the human figure. More than that, it's a catalog, by means of example, of the many purposes and styles that figure photography has had during its relatively brief history. "The Body" will be a real asset to any collection of figure photography. //wiredweird

An exceptional collection

William Ewing has assembled a truly remarkable collection of photographs in his book, _The Body_. In twelve sections, ranging from idols to eros, he offers expert narration to photographic works that are sometimes stunning, sometimes shocking. There are pieces within this book that are difficult to look at, because they depict something we have been socialized to try to ignore or overlook (such as those showing birth defects, much physical scarring, or disease,) but each plate has something to say if we look closely (even if it only says, simply, "Behold.")There are deeply-moving photographs, such as one from Lee Miller, which depicts prisoners at Buchenwald standing next to a large pile of human bones in 1945, and there are also arousing photos, like the erotic pieces from the twenties. Honesty is a frequent theme; several photographers have totally candid, unashamed self-portraits here that could be seen by some as unflattering, but still, here they are - honest.Truly a humbling book in many ways; the photographic genius represented here is simply amazing, and the absolute humanity of us all is completely laid bare, the trappings of civilization and manners stripped away. Powerful, sometimes strange, and very enjoyable.

an astounding exploration into our physical aspect

Abandon all preconceptions, ye who enter here! Distinguished curatorial authority William Ewing guides this tour into a realm of monsters and models, contortionists and courtesans, dancers and daredevils, athletes and adonises, the nude and the natty, the deformed and the divine, sideshow freaks and Siamese twins. He expertly narrates a burgeoning photographic gallery of the exquisitely beautiful, the repulsively grotesque, the exotic, the explicit, the exploited, the controversial, the brutal, the remarkable, the children and the parents, the universes within us and the societies in which we're contained. As Charles Levin observed, "The body is both a pleasure palace and a torture chamber." It is the sacred vessel of our souls and intellects as well as a humbling reminder of our animal nature. Considering the wealth of fascinatingly readable commentary that Ewing has packed into this comprehensive historical, global and cultural survey of the turning of the lens upon our physical selves, The Body, at over 400 pages, is a pithy piece of work indeed. Ewing has selected a challengingly diverse group of images: scientific motion studies by Muybridge in 1887 and by Edgerton in 1935, the classical beauty of Stieglitz, Weston and Cunningham, the scandalous frankness of Mapplethorpe, Mann, and Sturges, the morbid compositions of Joel-Peter Witkin, the pungent politics of Annie Sprinkle and Barbara Kruger, and so many more. A terrifically valuable volume with a flexible format, The Body weaves the commentary throughout the pictures so the reader is free to approach from the visual side or the textual or meander from one to the other. As a broad sampling, it provides a vital introduction for anyone seeking a toehold into the history, meaning and uses of photography and presents a wealth of brilliant work of many artists whom the reader will be inspired to investigate more thoroughly.

A totally amazing book

While I am a photographer, I have not photographed nudes. Were I to do so, I would study this book several times. This book presents both a variety of styles of photography, and a variety of bodies. Not everyone is a model. One can ultimately see the photographic possibilities for anyone willing to expose themselves to the camera.