''The Last Day of Summer'' is a 1991

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

book by

Jock Sturges John Sturges (; born 1947), known as Jock Sturges, is an American photographer, best known for his images of nude Adolescence, adolescents and their families. Sturges pled guilty in 2021 at Franklin County (MA) Superior Court to an unnatural and ...

. The book is Sturges' first and consists of 60

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

images of both children and adults, many of which show

nudity Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing. The loss of body hair was one of the physical characteristics that marked the biological evolution of modern humans from their hominin ancestors. Adaptations related to ...

. Many photos were taken at nude beaches in France, including the image on the front cover, which is of a girl named Marine, who would later also appear on the cover of Sturges 2000 book, ''Jock Sturges: New Work 1996–2000''.

Reception

A. D. Coleman gave a favourable review of the book in ''

The New York Observer ''The New York Observer'' was a weekly newspaper printed from 1987 to 2016, when it ceased print publication and became the online-only newspaper ''Observer''. The media site focuses on culture, real estate, media, politics and the entertainmen ...

'', stating: "Sturges sustains a delicate balance on a very precarious wire ... His struggle is to observe and render his subjects in all of their complexities, trembling on the cusp of change. The result of this long-term, communal effort is one of the most clear-eyed, responsible investigations of puberty and the emergence of sexuality in the medium's history, making a metaphor of the metamorphosis from child to adult."

Attempted censorship

In 1998

Barnes & Noble Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller. It is a Fortune 1000 company and the bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. As of July 7, 2020, the company operates 614 retail stores across all 50 U. ...

was indicted on child pornography charges in the US states of

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

and

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

for selling ''The Last Day of Summer'' and ''

Radiant Identities ''Radiant Identities'' is a 1994 photography book by Jock Sturges. The book consists of 60 black-and-white images of both children and adults, many of which show nudity. Photos were taken primarily at nude beaches in France and California. The gir ...

'' by Sturges, as well as ''

The Age of Innocence ''The Age of Innocence'' is a 1920 novel by American author Edith Wharton. It was her twelfth novel, and was initially serialized in 1920 in four parts, in the magazine ''Pictorial Review''. Later that year, it was released as a book by D. Apple ...

'' by David Hamilton. Then talk-show host

Randall Terry Randall Allen Terry (born 1959) is an American activist and political candidate. Terry founded the anti-abortion organization Operation Rescue, which he later abandoned. Beginning in 1987, the group became particularly prominent for blockading t ...

has been credited with causing the prosecution, as well as protests, after he encouraged his listeners to locate prosecutors interested in taking the case. Over an eight-month period as many as 40 demonstrations and incidents occurred at book stores stocking the three books. Some activists went into stores and destroyed copies of the books in an attempt to halt sales. When questioned regarding the prosecution, Sturges stated it would waste taxpayers' money, as the photographs "are not done flirtatiously" and have been displayed in major museums. Sturges responded to the indictment labelling the books as "obscene material containing visual reproduction of persons under 17 years of age involved in obscene acts" by stating "This is pretty chilling language because, in fact, the people in my pictures are not engaged in any acts at all. They are living in contexts that are

naturist Naturism is a lifestyle of practising non-sexual social nudity in private and in public; the word also refers to the cultural movement which advocates and defends that lifestyle. Both may alternatively be called nudism. Though the two terms ar ...

, which is to say that when it's warm and people feel like it, they don't wear clothes", also stating "To find the work obscene, you'd have to find homo sapiens between 1 and 17 inherently obscene, and I find that obscene." The charges were dropped in Tennessee after Barnes & Noble agreed to move the books to an area that was less accessible to children. The indictment in Alabama was dismissed by state officials after it was determined the books did not violate state law. The publicity from Randall Terry's efforts was linked to an increase in sales of the book.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Last Day of Summer, the 1991 non-fiction books Books of nude photography