Robert Stivers: Photographs

by Robert Stivers, Robert Stivers (Photographer)

Robert Stivers has explored the nexus of desire and memory in photographs that are hauntingly erotic. The images published here also possess a mysterious, melancholy feeling, and often turn on eroticism and death. For Stivers, the image is most often about the human figure in space, modeled by light, often reduced to the simplest forms. Embracing the abstract potential of the photograph, the artist mines the subconscious in a performative act of seeing and recording. This, the artist's first book, offers a contemplative visual journey. The photographs are accompanied by an illuminating essay by A.D. Coleman.

143 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1997

Reviews

[holden · Rating 3 out of 5]

series of approximately 40 plates. these defocused photographs look like images taken on the bed of a Xerox machine slathered in petroleum jelly. The effect makes human body parts look incredibly distorted and unpleasant. some images are vaguely fleshy, others distinctly human though orifices are transmogrified into gaping black voids. some images are dark, dreamy shots of various animals. human portraits feel quite quite aligned with the sort of imagery one would see in a Silent Hill game. unusual but not exceptionally interesting other than a few unsettling shots.

[Isaac Lambert · Rating 5 out of 5]

liminal space creatures within. The blacks and lights hit hard here. There will be some pics you don’t know what it is— but all will be revealed. Take off your glasses and it feels clearer. Fucking weird (in a good way)