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Misty Dawn: Portrait of a Muse

Misty Dawn: Portrait of a Muse

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Creator: Jock Sturges
Publisher: Aperture
Category: Book

List Price: $50.00
Buy New: $29.85
You Save: $20.15 (40%)



New (39) Used (5) Collectible (3) from $29.85

Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars 3 reviews
Sales Rank: 25513

Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 168
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.9
Dimensions (in): 11.3 x 10.3 x 0.8

ISBN: 1597110744
Dewey Decimal Number: 778
EAN: 9781597110747
ASIN: 1597110744

Publication Date: October 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

Similar Items:

  • Jock Sturges: Life Time
  • Presumed Innocence
  • Jock Sturges: Twenty-Five Years
  • What Remains: The Life and Work of Sally Mann
  • Jock Sturges: Notes

Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
Over the course of his career, Jock Sturges' long-term engagement with his subjects has been a cornerstone of his work. Misty Dawn, one of his primary and most popular muses, is one such subject; he has photographed her for 25 of her 28 years. Lithe, beautiful, classically proportioned, she is the personification of Sturges' philosophy of being at home in one's body.
This volume follows her growth from a shy, tomboyish child to a gorgeous, confident young woman. Taken as a whole, this series of images presents a unique, fully realized portrait of a blossoming individual and explores a rare and beautiful relationship between photographer and subject. Misty Dawn: Portrait of a Muse presents iconic images as well as previously unpublished material, mined from Sturges' older contact sheets and newest work.
Jock Sturges, born in New York in 1947, received a B.A. in perceptual psychology and photography from Marlboro College in Vermont in 1974 and an M.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1985. He has exhibited internationally, and his photographs are in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. His previous Aperture books include Notes, The Last Day of Summer and Radiant Identities.



Customer Reviews:

3 out of 5 stars Average - But Worth Getting if a Fan   November 20, 2008
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Misty Dawn hasn't been one of my favorite models/subjects that Jock Sturges has used over the years, but I bought this book anway as I very much enjoy his photography and I've liked some pictures of Misty in the past.

Did I enjoy this book? Yes, pretty much. Would I reccomend it to other fans of Mr. Sturges? Yes. But am I particularly excited about it? Not so much. I liked his other new book "Life Time" (which was just released) much better and I highly recommend Sturges fans buy that one from Amazon as well (though Misty is only featured once in it).

I would like to see Jock devote another book to a single model, one found in "Life Time" named Adele. That I'd find more interesting.

About the pictures in this book, they're all up to his usual standard of excellence. If you're familiar with his past work and remember the picture of Misty Dawn and two other girls sitting behind a window with two panes of glass missing... you'll probably find it interesting (as I did) that he brings Misty and those two girls back to that very same window frame about 5 years after the original and once more about 5 or 6 years after the second.

If you're a fan of Misty Dawn, buy this book. If you're just a fan of Jock Sturges in general and collect his books, but you're on a tight budget and are trying to decide between this one and his other new book... buy "Life Time" first and save this one for later.



5 out of 5 stars A unique portrait   November 16, 2008
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Any one photo captures a person for one instant. This collection presents twenty-four years of the woman's life. Not just a model, Misty Dawn is Sturges's friend and inspiration. That friendship comes through clearly in this progression of photos. The earliest shows a solemn girl, maybe seven years old. Even then, she confronted the camera directly. That self-possession, plus a face with a strong beauty even then, remain constant throughout.

Later pictures show Misty Dawn growing through her coltish early teens, blossoming into young adulthood, and having children of her own. Since she comes from a naturist family, she most often appears wearing only her native charm. That lets the viewer trace each stage leading up to the full womanly beauty of the last pictures, probably around age thirty.

Other one-model collections exist, including some very good ones. They all present one stage of the model's life, though - just a few days or months of her life. Since this covers the large majority of the model's life, it offer a unique view, not just one moment, but all the passages she has experienced. But it doesn't just show Misty Dawn herself, it shows Sturges's view of her as a lifelong friend, and that adds immeasurably to this incredible montage.

-- wiredweird



5 out of 5 stars Wonderful!   October 18, 2008
 5 out of 7 found this review helpful

Excellent work focusing on Jock Sturges' photography of his true muse, Misty Dawn. The book features many images of Misty that have never been in the public eye, as well as the best of the images with which we are familiar. Following her life through Jock's first image in of her in 1983 through 2007, we get a much better feel for her personality and spirit. I'm glad Misty is getting the recognition she deserves. She is a modern-day Mona Lisa, and will live on in Jock's photographs for all time.

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