In Radiant Identities, photographer Jock Sturges explores issues of youth and the liberation of body and spirit. These unforgettable images are made from his own circle of acquaintances and family; the settings are their homes and stretches of naturist beaches in France and Northern California. In superb reproductions, Sturges evokes the classical spirit of Old Master paintings and late-nineteenth-century photographic tableaux, while probing concepts of emergent sexuality and psychological intimacy.

Aperture's 1991 publication of Sturges's first book, The Last Day of Summer, came shortly after the FBI's much-publicized raid on his home in California, the confiscation of thousands of his images--deemed "pornographic"--and the subsequent rejection of the case by a federal grand jury. Now in its fifth printing, The Last Day of Summer has outlived and transcended that ordeal, drawing both critical and popular acclaim throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, and bringnig Sturges well-deserved artistic recognition.

Radiant Identities is the second volume in Sturges's ongoing work. Physically and psychically revealing, these deeply felt images are glorioiusly natural and wonderfully compelling.

Elizabeth Beverly's introductory essay, drawn in part from conversations with Sturges's subjects, adds a new dimension to the photogarphs. These personal reflections shed light on the unique collaborative process by which Sturges's remarkable photographs are made.

In the book's afterward, noted photography critic A.D. Coleman places Sturges in the context of current debates surrounding censorship in the arts, and discusses the themes of innocence and sexuality in the photographs.

Jock Sturges received a B.A. in Perceptual Psychology and Photography from Marlboro College in Vermont and an M.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute. He has exhibited widely in the United States as well as in France and Japan. His photographs are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.

Elizabeth Beverly's ethnographic fieldwork focuses on women's culture among the Mandinko of rural Senegal. Her articles, essays, and reviews have appeared in Ethos, Soundings, and Commonweal. Her most recent play, Kindred Minds, was performed in 1993 in Portland, Oregon.

A. D. Coleman is the author of The Grotesque in Photography, Light Readings, and two forthcoming collections of essays: Depth of Field and Critical Focus. Presently, he is the photography critic for the New York Observer; his columns appear regularly in Photo Metro, Juliet Art Magazine (Italy), and European Photography (Germany).