ORGASM

San Francisco, CA: Last Gasp Of San Francisco, 2000. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. As New/No Dust Jacket, As Issued.. San Francisco, CA: Last Gasp Of San Francisco, 2000. Hardcover. As New/None, As Issued. First Edition/First Printing. 95 pages. The photographer's breakthrough third collection. One of the most erotic photography titles of our time. The first appearance of the title in the United States. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only that sold out shortly after publication. The First Edition is now scarce. A brilliant production by Tony Ward: Regular-sized volume format. Pictorial hard boards with titles on the cover and spine, as issued. Photographs by Tony Ward. Brief text by Bob Guccione. Printed on pristine-white, thick coated stock paper in the United States to the highest standards. Without DJ, as issued. Presents Tony Ward's "Orgasm". His breakthrough collection. A "push-the-envelope" exploration of the sex act as a creative act, a series of acrobatics inspired by the imagination and recorded on film by the artist. At a glance, Tony Ward would seem to be the American Helmut Newton (with "hommage" touches to both Pierre Molinier and Robert Mapplethorpe) . His debt to these great artist/photographers of sex is considerable and unmistakable. Newton's darkest sexual fantasies were mediated by a refinement of sensibility and style that Ward finds effete because he pushes the same fetishistic and sadomasochistic imagery to its farthest limits. "Ward's images are aggressive. Proudly sinister, digging at the viewer, confronting them with their preconceptions about what it means to be a sexual human being. Not just pornographic, but makes one think about pornography" (A. D. Coleman) . The collection ends with what is surely one of the most daring photographs ever taken: A self-portrait of the photographer engaged in anal sex with one of his models. Ward published a follow-up in color called "Orgasm XL" (2003) , which is bigger but not better. An absolute "must-have" title for Tony Ward collectors. This title is a contemporary erotic art photography classic. This is one of few copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing (American) still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws because they have been pored over repeatedly. A scarce copy thus. 95 duotone plates. One of the most brilliant photographers of the sex act. A fine copy. . ISBN 0867195010.