David Steinberg (journalist and photographer)
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David Steinberg | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1944 (age 79–80) Jamaica, NY, U.S. |
| Occupation | Photographer/Journalist |
| Website | davidsteinberg |
David Steinberg is an American writer and photographer who has published several books of fine arts sexual photography and essays. He has written essays about sexuality and sexual politics for multiple publications. A Salon.com critic called Steinberg the "Allan Freed of sexual photography ...(who) is leading an equally daring cultural revolution -- an effort to free sexual photography from decades of wholesale dismissal as 'pornography' and have it taken seriously as fine art."[1]
His erotic photography has appeared in numerous exhibits and shows. In 2010 the Leydig Trust (which sponsors the Sexual Freedom Awards) declared Steinberg to be Erotic Photographer of the Year[2] In 2011 the Seattle Erotic Arts festival designated Steinberg as a "Master of Erotic Art" for "impactful photography (which) focuses on capturing the diversity of our human sexuality by showcasing a broad range of people."[3]
Steinberg has been an occasional guest on several podcasts, including Love, Lust and Laughter (2 episodes in 2015 and 2019), Sex, Spirituality & Psychedelics (2020) and Sex Out Loud with Tristan Taormino (2019)[4]
Books
[edit]- Doing Your Own School: A Practical Guide to Starting and Operating a Community School. Co-editor. (Beacon Press, 1972)
- Yellow Brick Road: Steps Toward a New Way of Life. Co-editor. (Red Alder Books, 1974)
- If I Knew the Way... (poems). (Community of Friends, 1975)
- Welcome, Brothers (poems). (Red Alder Books, 1976)
- Fatherjournal: Five Years of Awakening to Fatherhood. (Times Change Press, 1977)
- Beneath This Calm Exterior (Poems). (Red Alder Books, 1982)
- Erotic by Nature: A Celebration of Life, of Love, and of Our Wonderful Bodies. (Red Alder Books/Down There Press, 1988)
- The Erotic Impulse: Honoring the Sensual Self (Anthology). Edited by David Steinberg (Tarcher/Putnam, 1992)
- Photo Sex: Fine Art Sexual Photography Comes of Age (Down There Press, 2003). (Editor) Includes several photos taken by Steinberg.
- Divas of San Francisco: Portraits of Transsexual Women. Color Photography. (Down There Press, 2008)
- This Thing We Call Sex: A Radically Sensible Look at Sex in America. With 10+ black and white photographs taken by Steinberg. (Booktrope, 2015)
- The Shepherd and the Nymph: The Erotic Letters of Marco Vassi and Eve Diana. (Editor) Steinberg also wrote the book's introduction. (Red Alder Books, 2020)
The bibliography listed on Steinberg's author website shows that his writings have been included in more than 20 anthologies.[5]
Essays and Columns about Sexuality
[edit]Steinberg started writing about sexual issues in 1985 after publishing an essay, "The Roots of Pornography" in a local newspaper. He started leading workshops on “Eroticism, Pornography, and Sexual Fantasy” at conferences for men. From 1992-2006 he wrote "Comes Naturally," a monthly column on sex and gender issues for the now defunct Spectator Magazine (San Francisco's sex-oriented weekly newspaper). After Spectator ceased publishing, Steinberg continued distributing his monthly column to his mailing list of 2700 subscribers. From 2009 to 2010 Steinberg was a City Brights blogger for San Francisco Chronicle. Steinberg's writings on sex and gender have appeared in Salon, Playboy, Boston Phoenix, Los Angeles Weekly, SF Weekly, San Jose Metro, Arts and Opinion, Sexuality and Culture, The Sun, Libido, Cupido, The Gay and Lesbian Review, Transgender Tapestry, Clean Sheets, Scarlet Letters, and The Realist.
An anthology of his notable pieces appear in the 2015 book This Thing We Call Sex: A Radically Sensible Look at Sex in America. This book received praise from notable intellectuals, authors and sexologists including Annie Sprinkle, Judith Levine, Susie Bright, Patrick Califa, Rachel Kramer Bussel, and Candida Royalle.[6] Calling Steinberg's essays about sex and society "wise and timeless," Michael Castleman described Steinberg as "an explorer of issues of sexuality and gender like a latter-day Captain Kirk..."[7]
His personal website contains many of his columns (including his Comes Naturally pieces [8] and his City Brights contributions[9]). His essays and columns have covered a wide range of topics: pornography, homophobia, sex trafficking, gay rights, Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, a political history of lap dancing, Viagra, transgender rights, erotic photography, sex habits of college students, sex toys.
Explaining why he writes about sexual politics, Steinberg wrote, "Sex is the number one political issue of these times.... The fundamental cultural war being fought in this country is about sexual values, sexual attitudes, sexual beliefs — about how we feel, not about sexual programs, but about sex itself."[10]
Fine Art Sexual Photography
[edit]In the 1980s Steinberg first became involved in erotic photography when organizing "A Celebration of Eros", a mixed-media presentation which he gave in various cities across the U.S.[4] In 1988 he edited and published a collection of erotic fiction, poetry, photography and drawings, Erotic by Nature (Down There Press) in 1988. Containing 122 duotone photographs, 17 drawings, 15 short stories, and 38 poems, the book aims to "demonstrate that erotic art and writing can be passionate and provocative without being pornographic." The book received favorable press from the Utne Reader, Artweek, Libido, Bay Area Reporter, the Book Reader and the Whole Earth Review (which called the anthology "sexually nutritious .... luscious prose, poetry and photos of women and men in panoramic combination." [11]) Salon.com described this book as a "lavish, groundbreaking coffee-table book .... (which) was Steinberg's personal addition to the feminist critique of porn."[1]
Publication of this book led to work as the photo representative for a Norwegian arts journal (Cupido). For that job he represented 100+ photographers to Cupido, and eventually he started photographing couples having sex himself. What began as a "casual experiment" became an important focus of Steinberg's life for the next 25 years. Steinberg has described his photos as "fine-art sexual photography", saying "The basic purpose of fine-art sexual photography is not to arouse people (though that may happen) but to say something truthful about sex and about who we are as sexual beings."[1] Steinberg's photos have appeared in photography shows at art galleries in San Francisco, Chicago, Berkeley, New York and Oslo.[5] Many of the photos later appeared in photography books he authored or edited.[12]
Art critic A.D. Coleman described one of Steinberg's photography books as "(offering) us glimpses of the playful, the tender, the intimate, the affectionate, the delicate, the humorful, even the goofy ...This collective accomplishment unquestionably denotes a raising of the bar for what Steinberg calls "sexual photography."[13] "Most of Steinberg's photographs," writes critic Hapax Legomenon, "are friendly and casual and show normal-looking couples sharing private moments or just laughing. The human body can seem uncomfortably close in these photos, and yet there is not an iota of shame or embarrassment; they are just doing what bodies are inclined to do."[14]
Marco Vassi Memorial Archives
[edit]Steinberg made a brief acquaintance with erotic author Marco Vassi after inviting him to contribute a short story to the 1988 Erotic by Nature anthology. After Vassi's death from AIDS in 1989, Steinberg started collecting photos, letters and writings (both published and unpublished) by or about Vassi. Using letters and memorabilia donated from Vassi's friends and lovers, Steinberg assembled these things into a full archive.[15] In 2020 Steinberg edited and wrote the introduction for The Shepherd and the Nymph: The Erotic Letters of Marco Vassi and Eve Diana which details Marco Vassi's relationship with Diana in 1987.[16] In a 2024 interview, Steinberg talked about the process of starting the Marco Vassi Memorial Archives and why Vassi's life and writings has fascinated him so much.[15]
Personal life
[edit]Steinberg was born in 1944 and grew up in Jamaica, NY. He received a B.A. in mathematics from Oberlin College in 1965 and did graduate work in political science at Princeton from 1965-1966.[5]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c Castleman, Michael (October 3, 2003). "Erotic by Nature". Salon.com. Retrieved 6 November 2024.
- ^ "Sexual Freedom Awards". Sexual Freedom Awards. Retrieved 9 November 2024.
- ^ ""Masters of Erotic Art"". Seattle Erotic Art Festival. Retrieved 6 November 2024.
- ^ a b c Steinberg, David. "About David Steinberg". Retrieved 7 November 2024.
- ^ David, Steinberg (August 26, 2016). That Thing We Can Sex (Book Description and Promotional Material). San Francisco: Red Alder Books. pp. also appears on the first 7 pages of print edition. ISBN 978-0914906070. Retrieved 6 November 2024.
- ^ Castleman, Michael (2015). (Book's Forward) This Thing We Call Sex. Booktrope. p. i. ISBN 978-1620156919.
- ^ Steinberg, David. "Come Naturally (Index of Articles)". Nearbycafe.com. Retrieved 6 November 2024.
- ^ Steinberg, David. "List of City Brights Articles". Retrieved 6 November 2024.
- ^ Steinberg, David. "The Politics of Sex (article)". (Originally appeared in San Francisco Chronicle April 2, 2009). San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 6 November 2024.
- ^ Erotic by Nature: A Celebration of Life, of Love, and of Our Wonderful Bodies « David Steinberg (Hardback). Santa Cruz, CA: Red Alder Books/Down There Press. p. quote on book jacket. Retrieved 6 November 2024.
- ^ Steinberg, David. "Photographing Sex". Retrieved 6 November 2024.
- ^ Coleman, A.D. (2003). Steinberg, David (ed.). Everybody's Business and Nobody's: Mainstreaming the Sexual Underground (Book Introduction for "Photosex" by David Steinberg). San Francisco: Down There Press. pp. 3–6. ISBN 0-940208-32-6. Retrieved 6 November 2024.
- ^ Legomenon, Hapax. "My Life as a Fine Art Erotic Photographer (David Steinberg Interview Pt. 2)". Ripe Mango Take Two Press. Retrieved 6 November 2024.
- ^ a b Legomenon, Hapax. "Memories of Marco Vassi: (Interview with David Steinberg Pt 1)". ripemangotaketwo.com. Ripe Mango Take Two Press. Retrieved 6 November 2024.
- ^ Steinberg, David (ed.). Shepherd and the Nymph: The Erotic Letters of Marco Vassi and Eve Diana. 2020: Red Alder Books. ISBN 9780914906087. Retrieved 7 November 2024.
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