Photography was invented between the publication of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations and Karl Marx and Frederick Engels's The Communist Manifesto. Taking the intertwined development of capitalism and the camera as their starting point, the essays in Capitalism and the Camera investigate the relationship between capitalist accumulation and the photographic image, and ask whether photography might allow us to refuse capitalism's violence-and if so, how? Drawn together in productive disagreement, the essays in this collection explore the relationship of photography to resource extraction and capital accumulation, from 1492 to the postcolonial; the camera's potential to make visible critical understandings of capitalist production and society, especially economies of class and desire; and propose ways that the camera and the image can be used to build cultural and political counterpublics from which a democratic struggle against capitalism might emerge. With essays by Ariella Aisha Azoulay, Siobhan Angus, Kajri Jain, Walter Benn Michaels, T. J. Clark, John Paul Ricco, Blake Stimson, Chris Stolarski, Tong Lam, and Jacob Emery.

"Gartel has so superbly captured...the essence of erotic desire. In an age of sex being turned into merely a forbidden behavior and a troublesome medical condition, Gartel has rallied and preserved sexual teasing, seduction, and allure into its rightful pleasurable position by his commendable artistic photographic journaling. In my thirty years as a Sexologist, it is nice to see sex education, preservation, and permission for sexual expression and fun so alive in his work." -Dr. Gil Eriksen, Director of Research at the Institute for Reality Studies Renowned digital media artist Laurence M. Gartel records the world of Fetish in his own inimitable style. As an artist he brings his own creative input and adds his twist to the storyline, becoming a participant through the creative process of working with the imagery. This book is loaded with Gartel's provocative art, including 103 set pieces plus many of the posters and other graphic art for which Gartel has received such acclaim. This work will entertain and confront, as all great art will do. And in the end the reader will be left to ponder the creative mind that brought these images into being. An aesthetic and erotic adventure awaits.

Best known in the States for his work on the Warren icon, Vampirella, Sanjulian has been rightly called 'an artist's artist' for his brilliant sense of composition and use of colour - it's the kind of thing civilians just enjoy, while fellow illustrators make furious mental notes for future reference. Now, for the first time, we get to see the planning, the research, and the magic that goes into Sanjulian's flawless creations. It also features a full colour gallery of Sanjulian's favourite paintings, as well as an introduction by the equally legendary Jim Warren.

Vivienne Maricevic's desire to reveal, challenge, and transform the imbalance between the frequent representation of the naked female form and the rarity of male nudity is led to more than three decades spent devoted to the unadorned male form. While capturing scores of male subjects, she discovered that the majority had never been photographed by a female; the men all welcomed the role-reversal and the opportunity to confront the disparity it suggested. Included in this compendium are more than 150 images from three of Maricevic's most distinct periods: 1975-2005's "Naked Men," all taken in the subjects' homes; 1994-2002's "Me & Men," with Maricevic cleverly engaging her subjects by inserting a piece of herself into the frame; and 2001-2005's "Strip-to-Strip," an homage to Eadweard Muybridge's iconic "Horse in Motion." Her bold, creative synergy solidified a career built on intimate photographs of men au naturel. They are, at times, playful, erotic, or controversial - but always beautiful.

Erotic encounters have been celebrated by artists from the beginning of time. This irresistible volume presents 120 of the most engagingly erotic paintings, sculptures, prints, and drawings from diverse eras and cultures, coupled with revealing commentaries about their sexual and aesthetic content. Organised unlike any other collection of erotic images, The Art of Arousal traces the course of a sensual relationship. It begins by examining the elements of eroticism, and then progresses from flirtation and seduction through kisses and other foreplay before ultimately arriving at consummation and blissful exhaustion. The irrepressible Dr. Ruth explores every element of sexuality in these provocative works of art, including the pleasures of looking, creative fantasising, and the effects on male and female pleasure of the various positions depicted. All the works in this book have been chosen to meet two essential criteria: everyone portrayed must be having a good time, and each image must satisfy the high aesthetic standards of Dr. Ruth and an art historian friend, who writes with witty scholarship about the artistic and biographical aspects of these remarkable images. Now available in a revised edition that includes stimulating new works by contemporary creators, The Art of Arousal is the perfect gift for your lover who loves art.

Drawing on a panorama of materials from 1930s France, Eroticism and Photography in 1930s French Magazines takes a new approach to studying a certain type of image from a certain time. Previously untapped by historians, magazines such as Paris Magazine, Paris Sex Appeal, Pages Folles, Pour lire a deux, and Scandale are inscribed in the context of the interwar years. They reflect that context through a bawdy style, an audacious and multifaceted aesthetic - from kitsch to modern - and permeability to reproducibility. With a focus on the photographs as components of the magazines' layout, Alix Agret critically examines their interrelations with texts and graphics without neglecting the history surrounding them, which forms a backdrop to the analyses of this previously unstudied source material. The first study of its kind, this is a timely scholarly contribution to the field of the history of photographs. This book will be of interest to scholars in the field of history of photography, French history, and twentieth-century art history.

Tom's taste for police officers and felons-and for sexual tension between the two-developed late in his career. "I've never been to prison," he told a class at the California Institute of the Arts in 1985, "but I hear it's a closed world where there are different roles and people behave different from when they walk free. It fascinates me. It is another subject I come back to again and again." By which he meant fantasized about again and again, since only those subjects that aroused him sexually made it into his art. The uniforms of the California Highway Patrol motorcyclists were his favorite: tan and tight, with high boots and soft black leather gauntlet gloves. He created his own uniform variants as well, a cross between military and civilian police gear, and invented suitably butch criminals for his cops to apprehend, though once apprehended the power struggle could go either way. Tom was determined to show top and bottom as equally masculine roles, and his cops were as likely to end up happily speared by criminal cock as delivering corrective coitus. Though criticized by some for what appeared to be a glorification of power, Tom was always quick to remind that the world he created was a fantasy world, where anything was possible, and everything was consensual-even in prison. The Little Book of Tom: Cops & Robbers explores Tom's fascination with criminal justice through a mixture of multi-panel comics and single-panel drawings and paintings, all in a compact and affordable 192 pages. Historic film stills and posters, personal photos of Tom, sketches, and Tom's own reference photos make this far more than another Tom's Comics re-tread.

When we think Tom of Finland we first picture muscular, macho young men in military gear. Tom's vision of masculine perfection was formed during his service as an officer during World War II. Though he served in the Finnish air force, it was the German troops, stationed in Finland to help the country repel invading Russian forces, which served as inspiration. After all, only the Germans had uniforms created by Hugo Boss, tightly tailored, replete with designer touches, and complimented by high, shiny black leather boots. Tom, at 19, was smitten, an obsession that deepened following his first sexual experiences with German officers in the blackout streets of Helsinki. Tom began putting his military fantasies on paper in 1945 to memorialize his thrilling nighttime encounters when the war ended. At first the Hugo Boss uniforms dominated, but as the years and then decades passed he included American naval uniforms as well, and then his own hybridized designs of black leather, jodhpurs, boots, and peaked caps, with military insignia replaced by Tom's Men patches. As Tom attracted an army of loyal fans, he created, with pencil, pen and gouache, an army of free, proud, masculine fantasy men committed to pleasure and male camaraderie. The Little Book of Tom: Military Men explores Tom's fascination with militaria through a mixture of multi-panel comics and single-panel drawings and paintings, all in a compact and affordable 192 pages. Historic film stills and posters, personal photos of Tom, sketches, and Tom's own reference images explore the cultural context and private inspirations behind the ultimate Tom of Finland hero.

The "Song" series of artbooks have covered the sky and the earth - it was only a matter of time before we explored the seas for some inspiration! Mermaid Song Volume One contains an exquisite collection of portraits that celebrate the fabled water-breathers in all their sea-foam sexiness! Any fisherman would gladly crash his boat on the reef for a peek at these aquatic creations, as seen by artists like Arantza, Fastner & Larson, Bruce Colero, Pelaez, James Hottinger, David Dunstan, Malachi Maloney, and many more. Follow the call of these sirens -- their song is the sweetest yet!

Oh, you got ropes, and boots, and leather, and gals that just LOVE to get into trouble! What's more fun than Cowgirls gone plumb loco, a rassling and a'tussling under the wide open spaces! When two guys get friendly while wearing big floppy hats, it's a major motion picture event! See just how wild the Wild West can get, with artful eyefuls by artists like Pelaez, Arantza, Maraschi, Sosa, Ponce, Flores, and a whole posse more! Yippie ki yay, mutha ...well, you get the idea! These ladies have more than just their spurs jingling and janglin'!

Continuing the tradition of creating the next level of breathtaking pin-up girls in the modern world, internationally acclaimed photographer and pin-up artist Celeste Giuliano presents her classic style of pin-ups in stunning 3-D for the first time ever. The pin-up girl has been a staple of classic American culture since the 1920s. Featured on advertisements and novelty items, their coy smiles and flirtatious ways captivated millions while selling everything from colas to cars. During the 1950s, a whole new dimension of tease gained popularity once these timeless beauties were presented in 3-D. This book features all new images of the classic girl next door that tease both on and off the pages in breathtaking realism.

From the time The Big Penis Book was published, readers anticipated The Big Book of Pussy. Granted, perhaps not the same readers, but the seed had been planted and the calls and letters began flowing in. Once they had that long-awaited book, some found themselves overwhelmed by the variety and abundance, as well as the sheer size of the book. As one reviewer wrote, "let's give credit to Amazon for...the strength of its packaging. Who wants a 2-ton pussy book being 'exposed' for the mailman...?" For those who worry that there can be too much of a good thing, we've made a pared down, "best of" edition of The Big Book of Pussy, a petite little kitten of a book that puts those in-your-face photos in proper perspective. Now you can follow the evolution of genital exposure with ease, through 100 years of photos with one thing in common: the exhibitionistic pleasure with which the models present their feminine pulchritude. And with over 150 photos-36 new to this book-of the pet we love to pet, no bothersome text to interrupt the flow, all in a package that won't stress the mailman's back, we just may have produced the perfect self-gifter of the year.

The Zombie Pinup Collection is a compendium of inventive photography from Gorgeous & Gory. For years their photography has helped the world to plan for the Apocalypse and other daily occurrences with their signature style: Dangerously deadly pinups are imagined in the fantastical balance between glamorous and gruesome. The picturesque undead are fashioned with both vintage precision and sensuous abandon. Set in a vibrant, surreal landscape, the locations range from agelessly elegant to decrepit decay. Now, all of the exquisitely bizarre beauty has been compiled into one essential anthology of over 200 photos. Included are images from all four calendars, plus many additional photos that have never been seen before. A special behind the scenes look has also been added. Lustfully arousing and surprisingly fun, this collection is essential for undead enthusiasts and pinup admirers alike."

Hey, let's face facts - it's cold up at the North Pole. If you think hot chocolate and Mrs. Claus in a flannel nightie is all Santa has to keep himself warm - think again! Ol' St Nick keeps those handy lists of who's naughty and nice, but there's a special scrool of the very naughty that he keeps in a secret spot in his sock drawer! No wonder the fat ol' guy's so damned jolly! Ho, ho, ho indeed - here's an-all collection of Christmas-time cuties that might put the X in Xmas and keep it there! Eye-popping gifts of spicy holiday illustrations by such evil elves as Pelaez, Buci, Maraschi, Flores, Danilo, Lencina, and many other Gallery Girl faves! With a cover painting by Dave Nestler, another theory about ice-caps melting might be in order!