Sublime Mutations

Rating:
Summary: a grand parade of scarred, tattooed, degenerates
Review: by far his best work(s) yet.

the above said doesn't do much to describe the book if you've seen his previous work namely in the drag king book or love bites.

up until now i've mostly considered him to be a softcore pornographer who staged bad lesbian bdsm scenes. his work reminded me of brasai's in that he only had to go to the nearest dyke bar to find more than eager exhibitionists to shoot on the spot. where's the challenge or high art in that? it might have shocked and perturbed the general population (and garner undeserved critical acclaim) but there is nothing truly revealing and penetrating about the experience. such was the feeling i got looking at love bites. but he's gotten better.

in the section entitled, "ars poetica" the sex scenes are better staged --and include men. you can tell that a great deal of symbolism and thoughtful placement of every body part went into every portrait. the book reveals his talent for landscape photography as well. the way he captured that beach in "tranz romance" you'd think you were looking at a national geographic.

some of these photos were taken around the same time love bites came out so you can see the different directions he's taken his style since then. he's departed from the staged ultra-glamorous studio stuff in favor of more spontaneous, photo-journalist type of work. the latter really impressed me.

the candid headshots of ftms, the portraits of activists kate borstein and les feinberg and the late kathy acker show me he's a capable photographer with more than just a cheap skin show to offer. but then again, there are those people who prefer mapplethorpe's flowers over his portraits. he uses both the color an b&w formats very well.

there's some somewhat interesting literature if you bother to read it. jay prosser and some german academic whose name i can't recall have a few words...

in short, far superior, technically and artistically, to love bites and a more revealing portrait of queer subculture in general than the drag king book.

makes you wanna feel free to fly your freak flag high.