The Passionate Camera assembles over fifty artists, scholars and critics to examine the relationship between photography and sexuality. The contributors consider many issues including the importance of reinterpreting historical works by known homosexual photographers, contemporary photography and sexual diversity, and the use and abuse of photographs of sexual subjects in current political campaigns and direct activism. The Passionate Camera features color and black and white illustrations of works by artists such as Ajamu, Catherine Opie, Lyle Ashton Harris, Yasumasa Morimura, John O'Reilly and Sunil Gupta. For the first time, these works have been gathered together in a fresh and accessible critical context, making The Passionate Camera the preeminent source on queer and sex-radical photography at the end of twentieth century.

Contributors: Deborah Bright, Kaucyila Brooke, Michael Anton Budd, David Deitcher, Linda Dittmar, Mark Alice Durant, Paul B. Franklin, Lyle Ashton Harris, Thomas Allen Harris, Carol Jacobsen, David Joselit, Liz Kotz, Catherine Lord, Richard Meyer, Jose Munoz, Mary Patten, Erica Rand, Mark A. Reid, Mysoon Rizk, James Small, Alisa Solomon, Elizabeth Stephens, and Thomas Waugh.

Good reads include R Meyer on Mapplethorpe, L Kotz on Nan Goldin, D Joselit on Mark Morrisroe, Thomas Waugh on physique photo, K Brooke on Berenice Abbott, and more. I wish there was more historical work: Florence Henri anyone?? And I wish the guys didn't get so into the sensational "d&a" stuff -- it's embarrassing, especially when the art is so clunky, clunky, clunky.

A wierd thought: many of the guys are academically-trained art historians, and almost none (?) of the women are. What does that say?

A lot of fat could have been trimmed, leaving a leaner, tighter, and cheaper book. Nonetheless, it's about the onlything out there, and I'm glad to see that Routledge is still alive and kicking.