MADreads

Middle-finger gesture–Pictorial works

January 30th, 2009 Dennis - Central

That review title caught your attention, didn’t it?

That’s actually a Library of Congress established subject heading that I’m using for the title of this review. How many times have you seen that before? I’m guessing not many, as it’s the first time it’s been used in our catalog. Which is kind of funny when you think about it, as that particular gesture is such a common occurrence in our culture. Among certain groups anyway. At least in certain situations.

But the middle-finger gesture is not often so prevalent that it’s actually a theme of any of the books we have in the library. That changed when we got a copy of rock photographer Neil Zlozower’s Fuck you : Rock and Roll Portraits. [BTW, for you rock purists, the first two words in the title both have umlauts that I can't reproduce here. Sorry about that.] Neil has been photographing rock groups and rock stars for over twenty years (he’s become well-identified as a photographer of Van Halen) and has compiled quite a collection of photographs where one or more of the individuals being photographed has seen fit to extend their middle finger towards Zlozower’s camera at the moment the shutter is snapping. And those moments are now preserved in book form for you, dear reader.

Unfortunately, there’s not much text to read here. There’s a short intro and then it’s all photos until the end of the book, with the only text being the name of the band or individuals in the picture, and the year in which the image was captured. Some of the photos were captured while the bands were performing live, others were backstage and probably the majority of them are actual portraits with studio lighting and the subject striking a pose. The quality of the pictures varies broadly from the poorly lit and grainier images of concerts to the sharp well defined images captured in a professional photographic setting. But the book itself is small-format– about the size of a paperback– so the images are pretty scaled-down. You’re not getting all that much to see.

If you’re the type that might be offended at seeing photographs with this particular gesture, don’t even bother checking out this book. If you’re looking for something that’s edgy, provocative, or defiant, well, that gesture will probably seem pretty tame after about the third picture of some rocker flipping everyone off. I’ll admit it was kind of fun to look at some of the bands and band members whose music and videos I enjoyed, some in pictures taken a quarter-of-a-century ago before they got fat, or lost their hair, or just faded into obscurity. Some of the groups I’ve never heard of, but that’s to be expected too. I’m certainly okay with it.

Make no mistake, this book won’t be for everybody. But, if it does sound like something you’d like to take a look at, please, please don’t make the mistake of paying money for it. Borrow the library’s copy. You can flip through this thing in the amount of time it takes you to turn the pages. And you might come to realize just how ridiculous that middle-finger gesture can make you look.

Entry Filed under: Nonfiction