JMc & GHB Editions is pleased to announce Stag Film, an exhibition by photographer Steven Klein coinciding with the release of a new book by the same title.

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.

This is Klein’s second photographic artist book, following his 2003 collaboration with Madonna, X-STaTIC PRO-CeSS. A book reception will be held for Steven Klein on Monday, November 22 from 6 to 8 p.m. Stag Film is issued in an edition of 2000 copies and a limited, signed edition of 100 copies. A deluxe edition of 10 copies is also available.