The Last Day of Summer

 The photographs of Jock Sturges are the record of people he cherishes: mothers and daughters, friends, children. Before his 8 X 10 camera, they show their relationship not only one to another, but also of the inner self to the world. Magical in their detail, these images are a collaboration of trust and admiration between artist and subject. Jayne Anne Phillips's compelling prose both illuminates the photographs and explores the unending sensuality and complexity of the bond between mother and child. Each summer Sturges returns to visit the friends whose uninhibited grace, warmth, and beauty he so lyrically captures. He is now making pictures of girls and boys

whose parents he first photographed as children.

In 1990 the Federal Bureau of Investigation entered Jock Sturges's San Francisco studio and seized his work, implying violation of child pornography laws. Citizens, artists, and the media responded with outrage. With The Last Day of Summer, Aperture accords to Jock Sturges's humane and lovely vision the dignity and respect it so richly deserves.