shashasha

“Truant: Photographs, 1970–1979” features photographs by feminist and pioneer lesbian filmmaker Barbara Hammer. The photographs were taken during the 1970s as Hammer toured her home country of the United States, Africa, and Europe – a vital and prolific period of her life in which Hammer created more than two dozen films about lesbian and women experiences, such as Sis­ters! (1973), Multiple Orgasm (1976), and Double Strength (1978).
The photographs collected in the book were taken during Hammer’s travels, on set, and during more private moments (of intimacy, rest, kinship). Her images show (female) sexuality for what it is, a complex, messy, abstract part of the human experience.

“There are women in nature, and women in the world. Often, that woman is the artist herself. She bears witness to her body and its changes, and in doing so, she brings herself closer and closer to the viewer. In one self-portrait, taken in Baja, California in 1974, she turns the camera directly on her own face, revealing a mute expression of indifference, her lips turned in a slight frown, as if the camera did not impress her. She is, at times, ambivalent. Most of the time, she is fascinated, captivated by her body and the bodies of others.” − from the publisher’s description

The book includes essays by Andrew Durbin, A.L. Steiner, and Hannah Black.