Approach to the erotic

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32880, 1 April 1972, Page 10

Approach to the erotic

Dreams of Young Giris. By David Hamilton and Alain Robbe-Grillet. Collins. 142 pp. David Hamilton has an international reputation as a photographer specialising in erotic subjects; this volume is basically a collection of studies of female forms in domestic, natural, and architectural contexts. About half the photographs are monochromatic, and these are especially remarkable for their exclusive use of natural light sources; Hamilton’s approach to the erotic is very subtle and is based on his expert sense of light. Two sequences in particular—those of ballet and of women washing—suggest the influence of Degas, one of the pioneers in the field of art photography, who frequently used a photograph as the basis for a painting and whcse approach, generating the illusion of the voyeur, seems to be the same as Hamilton’s. The accompanying text by the distinguished French novelist, Alain Robbe-Grillet, occupies only 10 pages. Perhaps it is a fault in translation, out this commentary is couched in pseudopoetic language which seems quite unworthy of Robbe-Grillet; the tone of his text is pensive rather than predatory, and yet its intellectual alertness is undermined by languid expression. Robbe-Grillet's vision is certainly not in complete sympathy with that of the photographer, and he has some most perceptive comments to make about the illusory concept of innocence and the narcissistic nature of the studies. This is a very well-produced volume, remarkable for the way the two authors carry on an implicit debate on the artist's approach to the erotic.