Exploring the pages of Vice Magazine's new Photo Book can feel a little dirty, even naughty, but then that's sort of the point. In the 14 years since the magazine's humble inception as a free monthly rag aimed squarely at listless young intellectuals with a penchant for hard drugs, rough sex and running around the streets at night in the buff, it has inadvertently pushed the boundaries of pseudo-mainstream media photography and in the process showcased some of the most shocking, intriguing, provocative and downright captivating imagery anywhere on the newsstand.
Click here to see a selection of Vice Magazine covers.
A small but significant selection of those images has now been compiled into the first ever Vice Photo Book. The 300-plus page volume features an eclectic array of work consistent with the magazine's ineffable, instinctive, I'll-know-it-when-I-see-it editorial approach – from the debauched, freewheeling youth of it-boy Ryan McGinley and the raw Polaroid snaps of underground renegade Dash Snow (when was the last time you watched someone snort cocaine off a man's penis?) to the graphic, fervent and genre-bending work of more established photographers like Terry Richardson and Richard Kern.
Click here to see Dash Snow's Polaroids.
The most arresting visuals aren't always the most titillating or subversive. A series of twelve mugshots of a once pretty girl snapped by police at regular intervals from 1983 to 1997 is shocking for its stark and suggestive portrayal of physical decline; the gradual whittling down of her bright, playful smile into a vague half-frown beneath puffy eyes speaks volumes.
Click here to see photos from Benjamin Cho's series 'Stick 'N' Poke'.
Nor is the content typically provocative for the sake of provocation alone. Many of the images are candid or only marginally choreographed, so when you wince, shudder, scream, or gag, you are reacting, in fact, to life itself and to the things people do – albeit more often behind closed doors or on the pages of Vice Magazine than in a big, pretty book sitting on your coffee table.
Click here to see photos by Jordan Bennett.
Click here to see photos by Ryan McGinley and others.
INFORMATION
Bookmark -
