Working with ordinary people who answered ads in local papers, posing them in their nondescript homes or unexceptional landscapes and using relatively simple equipment, Katy Grannan alchemizes these factors into extraordinary photographs. Disarming for their directness and for the provocative but casual nudity on display, her pictures capture the spirit of her subjects in the manner of Diane Arbus, but they also draw upon the artificial, posed tableaux of Gregory Crewdson and, indeed, art history. The posture of the tattooed and tanned (and nude) figure in "Mike," a 2003 portrait which...

Marlene Dumas's work is widely admired for its emotionally-charged portrayal of the human figure and its potent combination of drama, humor and sexuality. Born in South Africa in 1953 and based in Amsterdam, Dumas is a highly-skilled ?painter's painter?; her work comments on the state of painting today while asking what it means to be a woman working within the predominantly male genre of Expressionist art. Dumas's work is collected and exhibited internationally, and since the publication of the first edition of this book, her following has continued to grow. This revised edition, with a new...