America Swings

Description

This book features photographs of the swinging sex lives of everyday Americans.Naomi Harris' subjects are not the usual perfected androids who populate contemporary erotica, but ordinary people with extraordinary sex lives; this book explores a rarely-seen side of sex in America.Richard Prince discovered Naomi Harris in TASCHEN'S "The New Erotic Photography" and was so intrigued by her photos of American swingers he tracked down the 34-year-old New Yorker, determined to make her his protege. When he discovered TASCHEN had signed her to do America Swings, he asked to write the introduction, in which he reveals part of what makes her work so unique: "When I look at one of your swinger photos what I'm looking at is mostly you 'outside' the picture looking at what you're photographing...half-naked, all naked, taking these photos of next-door neighbors having sex..." He refers to Harris' secret for winning the confidence of her subjects: to penetrate the world of middle class mate-swapping, Harris had to join them, often working in just shoes and a tool belt to hold her camera gear.Her extreme technique worked so well that in 48 months she was able to photograph 38 parties, crisscrossing the country from Mahwah, New Jersey, to Pleasanton, California; from Big Lake, Minnesota, to Washington, Texas. Her subjects including multi-orgasmic schoolteachers, polyamorous nurses, bisexual senior citizens and the Mandingos, a group of African-American men who service white wives. Stunningly photographed and surprisingly sexy, "Harris' America Swings" is, as Richard Prince describes, "something that's gloriously alternative, that isn't rentable, that can't be downloaded, that's uninhibited and filled with a sense of strange joy. Almost like a J.G. Ballard theme park for sex."

Dian Hanson is TASCHEN's sexy book editor. As a 25-year veteran of men's magazine publishing, she edited titles including Puritan, Oui, Outlaw Biker, Juggs, and Leg Show. Her many books for TASCHEN include Vanessa del Rio: 50 Years of Slightly Slutty Behavior and R. Crumb's Sex Obsessions. Naomi Harris was born in Toronto, Canada in 1973. She received her photographic training at New York's International Center of Photography. She has been published in the New York Times as well as Newsweek, Wired, Mother Jones, Fortune, Flaunt, Life, and Heeb magazines, and likes to knit, sing karaoke, and frequent nude beaches. She lives in New York City. Painter, photographer, and collagist Richard Prince was born in 1949 in the Panama Canal Zone. He is known as a critic of and commentator on American consumer culture and as a master of appropriated art. He currently lives and works in upstate New York.