Master breasts: objectified, aestheticized, fantasized, eroticized, feminized by photography's most titillating masters... - Tapa dura

The most revealing look at breasts.

Photographs of breasts are everywhere: in museums, on book covers, in fashion ads, and on posters. Alluring symbols of womanhood, breasts have fascinated generations of image makers. Here, for the first time between two covers, is the breast in photography: the titillating breast, the maternal breast, the aging breast, and the symbolic breast.

In Master Breasts, darkly witty political images of the 1970s jostle for space with Edward Weston's classic nudes; Nan Goldin's friends share pages with Robert Mapplethorpe's gorgeously sculptured models. From Alfred Stieglitz's classic studies of Georgia O'Keeffe to Mary Ellen Mark's vivid documentary portraits, they are all here. Other artists include Cindy Sherman, Imogen Cunningham, and Sally Mann.

A witty and reflective Introduction from the acclaimed novelist and essayist Francine Prose further links the images, while a monologue from Karen Finley's recent performance piece American Chestnut, "The Detective," reveals a young girl's anguish about breast-inspired catcalls and jokes and then sardonically calls for similar cultural treatment of the male anatomy. Finally, in Nobel Prize-winner Dario Fo's radically funny play The Story of the Tiger, the benefits of breast-feeding are celebrated as never before.

Francine Prose is the author of nine novels.

Karen Finley is a New York-based performance artist and author.

Dario Fo was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1997.

Charles Simic is a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, essayist, and translator.