Richard Kern

"These photographs may strike some people as sexist and others as sexy. Either way they are uncommonly visceral." - The New York Times, New York. Richard Kern likes real women: unpretentious, unadorned, and definitely undressed. Those who love Kern know each book is an invitation to join him in his privileged world where natural young women share their most intimate moments. Kern has never lost his boyish curiosity with girls and their secrets, so instead of posing them in sterile sets he follows them through the house—or rather his New York apartment—from backyard to kitchen to bathroom to bedroom, capturing every sexy and embarrassing moment. Action is his most revealing book yet. But we know that sometimes it can be a little risky to look at a book this revealing in public, so this special edition comes with TASCHEN's clever new Panic Cover feature to end public censure once and for all. Simply slip off the attractive but explicit cover, reverse, and redress your book for a sedate look perfect for all occasions. For 240 pages we will still be careening through the life of Kern, accompanied by dozens of energetic, fun-loving, clothes-dropping exhibitionists, but those ladies in the park will think you're reading The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire! “Young women want to show the world they’re not like their man-hating women’s lib mothers,” a Kern model once told me, and these girls certainly get the point across. To further assist the young ladies in their rebellion, the book includes an hour-long DVD of original Kern film with an exclusive musical score by Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth. Way to stick it to the Mom, ladies! And thank you, Richard, you lucky dog.-Dian Hanson

The internet video site VBS, launched by the ironic and ultra-cool American magazineVice, features original content on a wide range of subjects dear to the hipster heart. One of the first, and still the most popular, ongoing series was "Shot by Kern," a concept dreamed up by then editor-in-chief Jesse Pearson to roust photographer Richard Kern from his New York environs and have him shoot women Kern-style around the world. In the last seven years Kern has traveled to Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States with a Vice video crew. Fans follow his adventures on Vice.com, from interviewing the real women who dream of being New York Girls, through styling and shooting. What they don’t see, what no one has ever seen, are the photos that result from these video sessions. Shot By Kern presents some 300 of these photographs for the first time. Those who’ve followed Kern’s adventures on VBS will be especially eager to lay their hands on this book, but all fans will enjoy these fresh-scrubbed amateurs in their first time before the camera. Some are shy, some are brazen, but all have that quirky cuteness Kern seeks in his subjects. The book includes several photo series. As Richard travels the world he’s noticed cultural similarities between his models and themes have emerged, from the universality of prescription drugs, to a love of technology, to lying in bed, and peering up skirts. And because Kern has always been fascinated by what women do behind the bathroom door, there is lots of intimate personal grooming. As with Kern’s last TASCHEN book, Action, Shot By Kern comes with an hour long video, shot and edited by Kern, with original music by Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, because, like Kern’s models, the modern world is always in motion.

Escape To New York: Revisit those edgy, NY girls of the early 90s New York Girls, published by TASCHEN Books in 1995, defined a time, a place, and the raw esthetic of the artist Richard Kern. Kern was a leading figure in the 1980s Cinema of Transgression, director of the iconic filmsYou Killed Me First, FingeredandSubmit to Me Now; producer of Sonic Youth s Death Valley 69 and Marilyn Manson sLunchboxmusic videos; and a pioneering zine publisher responsible forThe Heroin Addictand The Valium Addict.After kicking his own heroin habit, Kern turned to still photography, shooting girls in his downtown, punk-inflected New York social circle. They werenaked, bold, tattooed, pierced, and casually posedin minimal sets, mostly just Richard s ratty slum apartment. They were young, but not innocent, fully complicit in the bondage, gunplay, and infamous candle insertions. The text was an interview with Kern by Kim Gordon. All of this predated SuicideGirls by six years and was utterly, supremely cool.To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Kern s best-known work, TASCHEN is releasing an updated edition withnever-published outtakes from the original photo sets, as well as photos rejected as too explicit for the first book and stills from his 25 films. We know you ve missed Monica, Erin, Jaiko, Jen, Susan, Amy and Sam, and thought you d enjoy seeing just a bit more of them. Text in English, French, and German "

The internet video site VBS, launched by the ironic and ultra-cool American magazineVice, features original content on a wide range of subjects dear to the hipster heart. One of the first, and still the most popular, ongoing series was "Shot by Kern," a concept dreamed up by then editor-in-chief Jesse Pearson to roust photographer Richard Kern from his New York environs and have him shoot women Kern-style around the world. In the last seven years Kern has traveled to Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States with a Vice video crew. Fans follow his adventures on Vice.com, from interviewing the real women who dream of being New York Girls, through styling and shooting. What they don’t see, what no one has ever seen, are the photos that result from these video sessions. Shot By Kern presents some 300 of these photographs for the first time. Those who’ve followed Kern’s adventures on VBS will be especially eager to lay their hands on this book, but all fans will enjoy these fresh-scrubbed amateurs in their first time before the camera. Some are shy, some are brazen, but all have that quirky cuteness Kern seeks in his subjects. The book includes several photo series. As Richard travels the world he’s noticed cultural similarities between his models and themes have emerged, from the universality of prescription drugs, to a love of technology, to lying in bed, and peering up skirts. And because Kern has always been fascinated by what women do behind the bathroom door, there is lots of intimate personal grooming. As with Kern’s last TASCHEN book, Action, Shot By Kern comes with an hour long video, shot and edited by Kern, with original music by Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, because, like Kern’s models, the modern world is always in motion.