New York Girls

Basically, this is what a porn photographer thinks is artistic work - some of it is, most of it isn't. Simply taking a photo of a naked lady, or nearly naked ladies, is not erotic photography - any idiot with a camera can do that. The best erotic photographers have an eye for lighting, staging, props, poses, scenes, you name it - it requires thought, effort, and imagination. That is why I like books on erotic photography, I love the creativity and I like to get ideas myself, as I'm an amateur photographer and greatly enjoy boudoir photography. All that said, the format and layout of this book are quite nice and up to Taschen's typical high quality for their first printings (second and third editions always seem to suffer).The photographs themselves, however, generally show a serious lack of imagination and creativity. I don't know if it's just laziness on behalf of Kern or if he's just seen so many gorgeous naked ladies through the years that he's grown accustomed to it and doesn't really care, but there's just not a lot of truly great photos here. I was favorably impressed with perhaps 1/3 of the photos shown, but the vast majority are little more than what you'd expect to see if you picked up a ten-year-old Penthouse magazine - actually, worse in fact.If you can get this one at a good price it's worth having, but it's certainly not phenomenal, and actually, there are VERY few photos in this book that I would consider "fetish" photography at all - most of it's just nearly naked ladies posing in fairly boring settings making facial expressions that are trying to convince you they're either viciously fierce, or they're having an orgasm for some unknown reason - again, pretty much what you would see picking up any cheap nudie magazine or surfing the internet for five minutes.

The paperback version is only 3 inches square. (=/-)

Absolutely Beautiful, So very Unique. Beauty that is phenomenal, the capture are so natural, so fine, it truly makes for a Great Photo Book. Joyful Girl, Artistic Girls and just the Frustrations of being beautiful. A book well Photo'd, too soon become a collectors item, only going up in valve.

Always a fan of Kern photography. Real girls that I could have gone to parties or art school with. Color, lighting, and composition.

kern's photography is unique. i plan to purchase more of his photography. i would like to see other photographer's work that have simular to kerns.

This is a fairly good sized book of good sharp images.There's a lot of bondage sort of images but not in poor taste, everyone looks to be having fun, even if a little perturbed now and then but always looking completely consenting. There's a little bit of penetration with objects but it's not in poor taste.I like this book for it's quality of printing and happy feel to the images. Though it's not by any means quality glamour (I guess I mean arthouse!), I don't believe it ever set out to be. It's engaging and creates a nice feel, like you're sharing some women enjoying pushing their sexual boundaries and then sharing it with the reader.It's not a book you'd give someone to learn photographic rules by but it is a book you'd give to someone just to feel they were sharing in all the good things about putting convention aside and wallowing in the pleasure of their own sexuality. A nice coffee table book for somewhere fairly liberated that, in that environment, would probably bring the reaction Mmmmmmmmm, yuu-uum more than too many other reactions.CheersLloyd

Richard Kern's photographic and film works are immediately identifiable -- blending S&M, punk-rock, documentary and fetish styles into a sensibility that is at once bold and revolting, sensual and ugly.His photographs are more intriguing than his films, which suffer from too much emphasis on violence, oftimes bad acting, and shaky shot selection (and I'm not referring just to the handheld style). It's surprising how beautiful some of Kern's photographic subjects appear very often, just because his style has a complete lack of pretension that can be inviting.Granted, all the violent imagery, gun fetishes, and people (usually women) in compromising positions gets repetitive. But Kern is one artist you can pick out from the crowd on the spot, and his toughness can be welcome in a world of airbrushes and perfect bodies and makeup. You could even argue some of these subjects look more human in this style than in any fashion magazine!

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

Pre-Suicide Girls, punk porn. I bought it as a student to take apart for posters. I wouldn't buy it now.

A lot smaller than I expected, many of the images had me asking "why"? Really a book for just looking at rather than for inspiration

There was no impact for me. Disappointed.