Stag Film, 2010
Published in a limited edition run of 2000 copies. In Stag Film, Klein reproduces and sequences 60 black-and-white images culled from a larger photographic series on horse studding produced by the photographer. The process of horse studding has fascinated Klein, a well known horse enthusiast and competitor, and in Stag Film he trains his camera on the horse breeding routine involved in collecting a stallion's semen for implanting in mares. Quite literally, a stallion is led into the paddock and introduced to a dummy, or phantom mare. Using a combination of artificial inducements the stallion is drawn to mount and penetrates the dummy, into which its semen is projected. The act completed, the stallion descends and is led away.
Although Klein's photographic series is, at first blush, purely documentary, the artist Klein is never a mere literalist and therefore, Stag Film continues his artistic investigation into form, shape, body movement and pose. Like his earlier bodies of work, his enduring subject in Stag Film is how we harness, form and reform a body's natural shape for theatrical and often erotic effect.
Published: 2010 in conjunction with the exhibition Steven Klein: Stag Film with John McWhinnie at Glenn Horowitz Bookseller
Held in black die cut cardboard box
Dimensions: 15 x 10 1/2 inches
Book: Limited edition run of 2000 copies
Book with Framed 8x10 Print: Edition of 100