Last month we reviewed ‘Camera Club Girls’ by collector and publisher Jim Linderman; in the course of our communications about that article, I felt that I wanted to learn more about his adventures in self-publishing. So Jim had been good enough to join us again for a closer look at [...]]]> Last month we reviewed ‘Camera Club Girls’ by collector and publisher Jim Linderman; in the course of our communications about that article, I felt that I wanted to learn more about his adventures in self-publishing. So Jim had been good enough to join us again for a closer look at the in’s and out’s of collecting art, curating a collection, and getting the work into print – do-it-yourself to the max!

Jim Linderman has written the Grammy-nominated ‘Take Me to the Water: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Music and Photography’ published by Dust-to-Digital and has published six Blurb books on vernacular photography and photographic history, including the critical acclaimed ‘Camera Club Girls: Bettie Page, her Friends and the Work of Rudolph Rossi’ ‘The Painted Backdrop: Behind the Sitter in American Tintype Photography’ and ‘Shy Shamed Secret Shadowed Hidden: SSSSH! Vintage Vernacular Erotic Photography’.

FPM: Like you, Jim, I also have a fond enthusiasm for off-beat photographic trivia, retro kitsch, and forgotten documents. Before we begin talking about your self-publishing adventures, could you tell me about your collecting in general? Can you tell me a bit about your background, and how you began collecting the materials you eventually edited and published?

I always collected something, but increasingly as I age I realize I wasn’t
making collections as much as I was assembling. I was always putting similar things together, in groups…to get a better understanding of them rather than collecting. Even then, my schemes how to acquire things were more important to me than the physical objects themselves. I wanted to learn, but the process was most important. I guess ownership was less important than the steps required in selecting things to look for. I’ve never had much money, and always had to scrimp and suffer for things I obtained. Even early on, that shaped my eye.

One thing I do differently with my blogs and books than most folks, I think, is that I’ve always felt I had to go through the process of obtaining objects first. Nearly everything I use in my books and writings are things I have found and own. It makes me both appreciate more and learn more about the objects or images I have. If I do crib an image from somewhere, it is usually something no one would want to claim anyway…or at least not until I have put it into a context where it makes more (or less) sense than it did originally.

My childhood was normal enough, Midwestern and safe. But I gravitated to the bad neighborhoods as much as I could. Beat literature, blues music and the library made me go bad!

Yeah, those damn libraries will do that to ‘ya, all right! But I notice that your collections are mostly image-based, as opposed, say, to text-based, like collecting odd poetry, for instance. Do you have a background in the arts? Not that one has to have any special training to be drawn to 50’s pin-ups, of course!

We’re so sophisticated these days – socially and visually. One of the things I personally enjoy most about retro stuff is its sense of innocence. Is that something that attracts you, too?

Well, I do not have a background in any formal art training at all. Sociology and Library Science. I guess you would have to call me a self-taught” collector. I do, however, have the gene. I believe some folks are born with the same DNA strand which causes crows to bring shiny objects to their nests. I’ve collected just about as many things as you can imagine. Hand-Carved Slingshots from Tennessee. Painted American Indian Suitcases known as Parfleche. Privately printed books on who killed Kennedy and UFOs. Handmade Paper Dolls. Garage Pressed Punk Rock Records. As soon as I recognize an area or genre which has either been forgotten or neglected, I’m on it like glue. I immerse myself.

That’s how the ‘Take Me to the Water’ collection of baptism photographs came about. I noticed no one had collected them before, and there certainly hadn’t been a book. So, for ten years I bought every single real photo postcard or original photograph of anyone being immersed, and when I had reached well over 100, it was time for a book and music project (for which I and Dust to Digital, the publisher, were nominated for a Grammy this year). The original photographs were donated to the International Center of Photography in New York City, I believe the exhibition opens in January 2011. That is as example of collecting in depth, until I feel I have exhausted all avenues. I have never really been a “stamp” collector, where the goal was to fill in every pre-determined slot. The art world equivalent of that is the survey show. I don’t like survey shows. I like the complete picture which can only come from a good, driven collector or curator who likes to dig.

Wow! Busy guy! And a celebrity, to boot!

Given that you experience collecting and curating as creative activities, I suppose that it’s only natural that you would want to share your discoveries with others. I have always argued that art is a communal activity; that art is created to share, being a form of communication, like storytelling. Few serious artists create something and then lock it away – they (at least) hope that someone else will see their work and appreciate it, or be affected by it in some way.

It’s very interesting that a collector may have that same desire to share. I don’t think that all collectors feel that way, but you obviously do. So I can see that it’s not much of a leap from putting a collection together to publishing that collection for others to enjoy.

So, how did that part of your work begin? You currently have an intriguing collection of publications available, and I’ve reviewed one of them; how did all of this get started? Were you getting requests from folks, or did you simply feel like it was the right thing to do?

After 25 years in living two blocks from Times Square, my lungs were so shot three doctors told me to get out, so I moved back to Michigan and now live near the beach mere steps from where my parents raised me. As my energy waned, the web grew, so it is now possible to use it for exploring as much as I used to in the car. My attention has also shifted to smaller things, visual things, photographs, comics, paper ephemera. It is still consistent with my feelings about picking an area and collecting in depth, and there are endless topics and areas to pick from.

There is also more material available, it is less expensive, and easier to make a contribution. The web makes it easy to create and share images, and I use the objects I own as starting points for little essays and observations. A little Andy Rooney sneaks in, I worked with him during my years while at CBS News, but for the most part I avoid politics and opinion and such. I see both my blogs, of which I have a dozen or so, and my books (6 and counting) as art projects of my own. When done seriously, the blog is an art form, just as legitimate as painting or sculpture.

I feel the same about “sharing” as I always did. First, there is enough for everyone! I used to laugh at people who cut in line at antique shows. After all, what were the odds they would be trying to buy the same thing I was? Second, at some point in my life I decided to leave a footprint, both digital and physical. So I do a daily blog post to clear my head, and in the meantime work on long range projects and goals.

I treat my books as little art projects. Think “limited edition prints” or numbered editions. I always admired small press companies, and now with Blurb and other web-based printers, it is possible for anyone to make a book. I try to accumulate an area in depth, then package up a little product. I don’t make any money on them, the publisher takes it all…but they do provide a physical object and record of something I’ve done.

A creative act, a statement, a point of view – the same things other artists think about – ALL of the time! I have artist friends who also curate exhibitions, and they sweat over that work as much as they do over their own paintings or photographs. So I understand your motivations completely.

I think most artists look at self-publishing more as a way to expose their own vision to a wider audience than as a way to pay the rent. Like you, it’s more about sharing than anything else.

The million dollar question everyone is curious about is this: does self-publishing make sense? Is it effective? Does it help build an audience? Or is it just an expensive black hole to pour money into? Every artist thinks about it.

The fact that Blurb makes all of the dough is certainly disappointing to hear! But, assuming that one goes into such a project with the intention to ‘get their work out there’ rather than to ‘make a pile of dough’, can you offer the rest of us any advice on the process? Has your experience with Blurb and/or other on-demand publishers been positive? Any war stories you’d like to share?

The advantage of online publishing with Blurb is that it costs nothing to do. Literally nothing. You do all the work, with their software, upload the finished product, and they do the rest. All if it. Printing, binding and shipping. As no minimum order is required, you have NO investment in the finished product and NO inventory to sit in the garage if none sell. Of course, you can buy as many as you like, and if you want to purchase 500 copies, they would certainly be happy to do it and ship them to you.

With a “real” book, or at least one which goes through a major publisher, the ISBN process and with distribution channels, you have to invest in your product. With printing (likely, at this point, unfortunately, overseas) and shipping, you could easily reach ten or twenty thousand dollars without even selling one copy of your book. Then you have to figure out how to get it into the book distribution system (which at this point means Amazon, Barnes and Noble and the small organizations of independent booksellers) You CAN have an ISBN assigned to a Blurb book, it is a slightly more difficult process, but can be done.

Since my books are art projects and a hobby, I don’t need to show a profit. Anyone who creates a Blurb book sets their own price, that is, given the cost one is charged to print each copy. Blurb is expensive… the base price is much higher than a similar book printed in quantity… so, given the economy and the trend towards e-books, I don’t see it as an alternative to publishing really. I price my books five dollars more than the cost to me. Since so few sell, and trust me, they don’t… that’s not really an income.

As for selling and marketing, it’s all up to the author. Blurb provides badges one can use to link to the book, does a little indexing with search engines, but for the most part you own the book and you can do what you want. Buy twenty copies for friends. Print some to put on your shelf. But as a valid opportunity to publish to the real world, they are actually only a small step up from the “vanity” presses of old which would print, say, your uncle Charlie’s bar jokes or war memories.

Jim, I think that anyone interested in the technical details can do their own research on the quality of the various self-publishing services out there, especially since they are all evolving so rapidly; that said, my final question to you would be:

In retrospect, with the experiences you’ve had thus far, do you feel that this is still a viable avenue for artists and collectors to get their work into the world? You’ve been far down this road to date – would you do it again? Or would you consider other options? Has the trip been what you expected / hoped for? And would you recommend your route to a fellow artist?

I would absolutely recommend it. First of all, one can be remarkably creative. The software provide all sorts of options and chances to experiment… yet it is so easy to create. Just enter the project with low expectations as to sales and you’ll be happy.

I have found it useful for organizing collections… once they are documented in a book, they take on additional meaning for me and for those who can see the images. A blurb book is a wonderful way to show your work, they make simply outstanding gifts or promotional items… for the price of a piece of junk at your local mega-mall, you can give a literal work of art, and a personal one at that. Art and photography dealers might avoid yet another envelope of slides in the mail, but I guarantee they’ll look at a book sent to them.

Several drawbacks we haven’t considered. The folks at Blurb have told me they have no plans to expand into e-publishing. It would be nice to be able to sell a version of your creation for the Kindle, Nook, or other readers, but no go. You CAN, however, elect to allow the entire book to be read on the Blurb site, and the page turning function is great. Digital photos on their platform actually look far better than they do in the printed books.

Second, when creating a Blurb book, their software uploads each image, one at a time, into the file that is created for your book. Once loaded into their software and system, you can delete images, but you can not copy them out from the Blurb design interface.  I’m sure they do it so no one can take the created book and use it for other products or publishing platforms. So when you create a book on Blurb, you should be sure you have retained copies of the images you used on your own hard drive or desktop as well.  You can always, at any time, access your images online at Blurb, but you can not retrieve them once loaded into their program.

Third, mistakes are permanent, you have to “republish” your entire book to fix them. EACH of my books has one tiny mistake others might miss, but every time I see them I cringe a bit. I know the Amish always intentionally leave one little error in a quilt because only God is perfect, but in a book it is just annoying!

Visit Jim Linderman’s Websites:

Dull Tool Dim Bulb Books

Dull Tool Dim Bulb the Blog

Vintage Sleaze

Old Time Religion

The Wondrous World of Wendt

Edition Reuss, 2008. ISBN 978-3934020665. 27 x 27 x 1.8 cm. 128 pages.

Naked Dance and Gymnastics is a largish well-printed square-format volume full of warmish-tinted monochrome female nudes (though not as warm-toned as the photos here, which are taken directly from the publisher’s website). The photographer, Ralf Mohr, has several [...]]]> Edition Reuss, 2008. ISBN 978-3934020665. 27 x 27 x 1.8 cm. 128 pages.

Naked Dance and Gymnastics is a largish well-printed square-format volume full of warmish-tinted monochrome female nudes (though not as warm-toned as the photos here, which are taken directly from the publisher’s website). The photographer, Ralf Mohr, has several other volumes to his credit, which I have not seen. Here he has collaborated with a group of dancers and movement artists whose striking athleticism is very much in evidence.

Mohr is at his best with slow shutter speeds to suggest motion or in photographing softly-lit details with a narrow depth of field. One striking photo in this vein is of a figure lying on the floor in a sort of jackknife pose with an upwardly thrusting foot like an asparagus spear, toes in focus, defying anatomical probability (not illustrated). A couple of jump photos are also striking.

My favourite photo (also not illustrated) is one the simplest and most effective compositionally – a powerful rear view of a figure, upper body pressed against a wall, arms wide, legs spread and tensed. Here the subject’s powerful yet elegant body really comes into its own. Other photos work well when the subject has eye contact with the viewer. Too often, however, the lighting is stage-like and highly directional: this means that poses are sometimes less than ideally lit, and while this may not be an issue during a live performance, it is critical with stills – the sense of movement is not so easily transmitted and parts of the body may be masked by other parts, creating unflattering contrast and ‘black holes’. Many photos look posed (which they probably are not), and then I want to say ‘Tidy up the details! Adjust the lights! Perfect the symmetry!’

Some photos are frankly ugly – the extreme pelvic thrust of one woman with head-on lighting and awkward hand in the photo below is just one example. In fact, if you like exposed genitals, then there are plenty more on display (and Edition Reuss are not exactly shrinking violets in this regard). I myself have no objection to genitals as long as they know their place, but this is not always the case in this book.

Too many photos, particularly the ones taken outdoors, seem like makeweights in a book that struggles to justify its number of pages. They are the sort of middle-of-the road photo you can see all over the web. I do not think the dancers and gymnasts are particularly well served here; what I find lacking in so many photos is evidence of a photographic voice.

As will be evident, I am not terribly enthusiastic about this book. Greater pleasure (but fewer genitals) can be gained from the work of Andreas Bitesnich, Howard Schatz, Karel Vojkovsky and others, I fear.

Reviewed by Eric Kellerman (who bought his own copy)

Visit Edition Reuss’ website

Visit Ralf Mohr’s website

Visit Eric Kellerman’s website

Jim Linderman sent me a copy of this little volume he has recently written and published, and it’s an awful lot of fun. For those of you too young to remember the 50’s and early 60’s (before the American Cultural/Sexual [...]]]> Jim Linderman sent me a copy of this little volume he has recently written and published, and it’s an awful lot of fun. For those of you too young to remember the 50’s and early 60’s (before the American Cultural/Sexual Revolution), there was a time when getting a model to pose in the nude for a camera was about as easy as landing on the moon, which we hadn’t done yet. Here’s a blurb from Jim’s website:

For over 50 years, the extraordinary Hand-Painted Original Photographs of Bettie Page and nude models of the 1950s taken by Rudolph Rossi lay hidden. Now, for the first time, over 100 have been published in Camera Club Girls by Jim Linderman. 114 pages, 35 pages of text and 180 pictures, the book tells the story of the informal groups of early camera enthusiasts in New York City who paid ten dollars each to photograph naked women, including Bettie Page, in dingy studios and outdoor excursions. As much the history of early erotic photography and Times Square smut as it is the story of the exceptional personal vision of an artist, master photographer and painter which has not been told until now. The photographic find of the decade, and an amazing story which combines passion, painting, photography and early porno in a tale never told.

Jim is a collector of cultural ephemera and oddments from those and other years – in this book he speaks of living near New York City’s Times Square back in the day. Before its Disney-fication of the 90’s, Hell’s Kitchen was one wild place. I probably bumped into Jim somewhere along the way, ’cause I was there, too.  And it was something, let me tell ‘ya! But that’s another story :-)

‘Camera Club Girls’ is a delightful visual time capsule, recapturing the sexual zeitgeist of the time, and a lighthearted description of the lengths to which determined and enthusiastic amateur camera bugs used to go to fulfill their dreams of actually being in the same room with a woman who was willing to take her clothes off and stand still for a photo or two.

That may be difficult for youngsters to comprehend, accustomed as they are to today’s culture, immersed, indeed, inundated, with highly sexual language and imagery. Unless you live in Philadelphia. It’s still the 50’s here :-)

Now, I think that Jim is enthusiastic about his collecting, and indulging in a bit of hyperbole when he describes his photographic ‘discovery’, Rudolph Rossi, as ‘an artist, master photographer and painter’; there is precious little talent in art, photography, or painting evident in Rossi’s ‘work’. The photographs are banal and empty; imagining Rossi painstakingly colorizing his photographs by hand in order to create ‘art’ is a sad, lonely thought, at least to me.

That said, I will agree that the photographs certainly have a sweet, artless charm that captures the sexual and cultural innocence of the era, and the innocence of the photographers and models who participated in the camera club experience, as well. I have seen photographs of similar clubs in Japan that, I believe, still operate in the same manner today. And one can’t help but wonder if, in some ways, the societal restrictions of the period didn’t make it all the more fun, in a schoolboy kind of way.

Some may find Jim’s history of the camera clubs themselves more interesting than the story of Rossi’s work in particular. This is a little book, but there’s a lot of delightful nostalgia included that will appeal to those of us old enough to remember, and that will perplex the kids, who won’t believe that America was once so weird.

Buy this book from Jim – you’ll enjoy it!

CR

187 Photographs, 114 Pages Hardcover or Softcover. 
By Jim Linderman and Dull Tool Dim Bulb Books

To be honest, when I began creating FPM I had little idea of the amount [...]]]> Lately, a few FPM supporters and enthusiasts have asked whether FPM is still ‘in business’. This is, I’m sure, due to the fact that new articles have been slow in appearing the last couple of months.

To be honest, when I began creating FPM I had little idea of the amount of time it was going to demand from my already over-burdened creative life! Those of you who have also attempted to run a feature-driven website will, hopefully, share my pain and surprise :-)

Fact is, I realize now that FPM will never be a site where you will find something new every day, or even every week. Once a month? I continue to hope so. We’ll have to see.

But I will continue to write about the art as much as I can, and I hope that you will continue to find new thoughts, ideas, and resources that you deem worthwhile. Goodness knows, there’s lots to say, but precious little time to say it!

If you’ve been enjoying FPM, it would be very helpful indeed if you would drop a line via email or comment to offer your own feedback. I have received very little input from the many visitors and subscribers who my stats tell me have spent time at FPM – and that’s a bit of a drag. Your input and ideas will help to keep this little ship afloat and on course. Thanx.

CR

Reviewed by Eric Kellerman

Andreas Heumann was born in Munich, raised in Switzerland and lives in England. Now in his early sixties, he epitomizes the versatility of top international photographers of the second half of the 20th century, with a long string of prestigious awards and [...]]]> Lens Modern, 2007. 148 pages. £16

Reviewed by Eric Kellerman

Andreas Heumann was born in Munich, raised in Switzerland and lives in England. Now in his early sixties, he epitomizes the versatility of top international photographers of the second half of the 20^th century, with a long string of prestigious awards and commercial successes in fashion and advertising to his name. Vogue, Harper’s, Nike, Aristoc, American Express, Mercedes and Kellogs are just a few of the clients he has worked for. He has shot a Time Magazine cover (10 June, 2002, on p 100 of the book under review here). He is also a painter whose work has been accepted by the Royal Academy in London.

Augenblick is a beautifully produced personal collection* of photos and art works by Heumann in pocket-sized paperback format. The German title translates literally as ‘blink’: it also implies a request for a short delay, as when you say ‘just a moment, please’. This ambiguity is at the heart of this collection of 200 or so works – the brief but crucial consideration of what you see before you and the instant in which it is captured.

Heumann’s gift is evident throughout the wide range of subject matter to be found in the book. There are nudes, portraits, still lives, animals, landscapes, flowers, architecture and more. His compositions are by turns subtle and strong. In colour, as befits a painter, he is not afraid of the bold gesture (the almost abstract ‘Trawler in Hamburg’, p 78, three shades of blue punctuated by orangey-yellows), though his palette can be very delicate, as in ‘Koto Player’ (p 22) with its dark pinks and pale greens.

In black and white, he is the master; velvety, chocolaty, silky, burnished are the adjectives I would apply, especially to the nudes. But above all what runs through the work in this book is a feeling that is captured by another one of those complex German words, Sehnsucht, a wistful melancholy, a longing for a far-off time and place. You see it everywhere, whether in the photograph of a dead fly on a windowsill (p 124), or of an abandoned mantelpiece with empty vase, over which can be seen the outlines of a picture frame and the nail it hung from (front cover), or in the centrally positioned small sunlit patch of land protected by a gate (p33), dominated by surrounding dark trees and bushes, a tunnel in reverse, the light unreachable. Even the nude couples on pp 57, 58 and 113 have this quality. All is still; there is an air of inevitability, and it is not necessarily a happy one.

This sense of Sehnsucht is heightened by Heumann’s frequent use of concealment, whether in the turned-away or half-hidden heads and backs of his portraits and photos of dancers, in the use of fabric, shower door glass, steamed-up mirrors, or the absence of humans in scenes where they might be expected to figure (abandoned garden furniture, cups on a hedge top, a cricket pavilion in a snowy landscape).

There is also a touch of the surreal in several photos. The monochrome ‘You know this feeling?’ on p 40 is a photo of a sea view with a small bird on a balcony edge. Below there is an empty round table with a bottle and ashtray and the arms of a chair just visible. It’s a photograph of mystery and strong composition – the three central elements (bird, bottle and ashtray) form a tight diagonal that balances the strong horizontals of sea, balcony edge and table. ‘Upset’ (p 79) shows a man seated at a table, his head a mass of crunched-up paper in the form of a grotesque commedia del arte mask.

It would be wrong to suggest that all is melancholy in Heumann’s work. Far from it. Humour and happiness abound. Three dolefully attentive dogs on a sofa (‘Stay!’ on p134) are commanded not to move by an arm with raised finger appearing from the right side of the frame. A distinguished gentleman, hands behind his back, leans forward to sniff a huge bunch of flowers in an elegant hotel lobby observed by the female statue above him (83). A small child, thrown in the air by an adult with outstretched arms, expresses her unconditional joy (‘Higher’, p87). A cat leaps over a wall in a black blur, front paws in, back legs out, reminding me of Lartigue’s Bichonnade Leaping (p 112). In ‘Look Daddy’ (p 102), a small girl is the sole observer of two dogs copulating.

This brief review can only scratch the surface of the diversity that is on display in Augenblick. It is interesting that the photographs are neither given dates, nor indexed, nor arranged by theme. The page numbering comes and goes. It’s a book to leaf through at one’s leisure, its randomness heightening the sense of pleasure one derives from repeated viewings. While this is not a book of nudes (they only represent about 10 per cent of the photos), Augenblick is so full of beautiful work by one of the world’s major photographers that I can only recommend it wholeheartedly.

Augenblick can be obtained at Amazon.co.uk and via http://www.andreas-heumann.com/books.htm

Visit Eric Kellerman’s website

A new ‘Spotlight’ interview with German photographer and illustrator Stefan Gesell is now online. Stefan’s stunning work is bold, colorful, stylish and sexy. Very, very impressive work, informative interview – enjoy!

For FPM Subscribers. Join us now – it’s free!

Steve Richard shares just a small taste of his innovative body of work. ‘Scratching the Surface’ is just one of a series of figure studies Steve has done that really show off  his technical and imaginative skills. Did YOU ever fill your studio with two inches of water for your [...]]]>

Steve Richard shares just a small taste of his innovative body of work. ‘Scratching the Surface’ is just one of a series of figure studies Steve has done that really show off  his technical and imaginative skills. Did YOU ever fill your studio with two inches of water for your models to dance in? Well, Steve did, and the results are – well – see for yourself! Subscriber content.

John Casado has been kind enough to share some photographs from a really remarkable series he’s been doing, using simple paper masks, lith printing and a powerful sense of the surreal. Fabulous work to look at, and a really great interview, too – full of new insights and [...]]]>

John Casado has been kind enough to share some photographs from a really remarkable series he’s been doing, using simple paper masks, lith printing and a powerful sense of the surreal. Fabulous work to look at, and a really great interview, too – full of new insights and ideas. For subscribers only, so join up and enjoy John’s excellent work!

Andrew Cahner is an art model and has done something very,very useful. He’s written a book about the actual art of being a model.  And it is an art.

The Art Model’s Handbook is a really valuable resource of knowledge and insight into the actual ‘nuts & bolts’ of posing for [...]]]> Andrew Cahner is an art model and has done something very,very useful. He’s written a book about the actual art of being a model.  And it is an art.

The Art Model’s Handbook is a really valuable resource of knowledge and insight into the actual ‘nuts & bolts’ of posing for artists. For an individual interested in becoming a model, it’s an indispensable tool,  full of ideas and techniques based upon real-world experience. Andrew discusses every aspect of life modeling – where to find work, what to expect, what to bring, how to pose, the ins and outs of model releases,  and, happily, the importance of security and due diligence on the part of the model.

Sad to say, I have, more than once, found myself obligated to warn a young woman who is interested in life modeling that there are real responsibilities, real physical challenges, and yes, some real dangers in this field. So I am particularly happy that Andrew has written this book, because I think it explains all aspects of the discipline in detail. There are several interviews that are particularly interesting – it’s always great to hear useful information in the first person.

Andrew also includes a short but really intriguing document, written by Nancy Lilly, called “Model’s Protocol’; I just want to quote a snippet that is so true:

“Models deal with a major paradox:

• The model is the most important person in the studio.
• The model has the least power of anyone in the studio.”

Food for thought and discussion, for sure.

I intend to keep a few copies around my studio and give them out when the need arises. There is no question that every art model should read this book; but let me suggest that every figure photographer read it, as well. If you are new to working with a life model, this book will give you a good overview of what you can expect from a professional model, as well as what will be expected of you as an artist and as an employer. By gathering and presenting a basic set of standards and practices, and a clear picture of realistic expectations and responsibilities, Andrew has given us all a guidebook that will make the process clearer for everyone involved.

Also, if, as an artist, you agree that:

• The relationship between artist and model is a collaborative one
• That neither one can function without the consent and support of the other

Then: the better you understand the viewpoint of your model, the better your collaboration will be. Reading ‘The Art Model’s Handbook’ will help you make that relationship stronger and more productive. Well done.

Find out more at Andrew’s website. He has material from the book available for download in .pdf, so you can try before you buy :-)

CR