A Contemporary Dictionary of Sexual Euphemisms

About the Photographer

Tate, Jordan

American, b. 1981

Jordan Tate’s limited-edition book A Contemporary Dictionary of Sexual Euphemisms defines 55 words and phrases, 27 of which include photographic illustrations. Always in a scholarly diction, the definitions begin with literal interpretations and end with the sexual slang sense of the word, complete with example sentences and derivations. The pictures have a similarly straight-faced literalness in acting out figurative language, which continues to disguise the given sexual practice while illuminating the euphemism. The text engages the function of sexual euphemism as a way for men to define and assert notions of masculinity, but the images provide a visual interpretation that reinforces just how ridiculous, unsavory, or violent that language can be. Taken alone the images are often playful or comic, but joined with the text they work to give shape to a more critical investigation. Jordan Tate was born in Louisville, Kentucky. He holds a B.Phil in Interdisciplinary Studies from Miami University, Oxford, OH (2003) and an MFA in photography from Indiana University, Bloomington (2007). A Contemporary Dictionary of Sexual Euphemisms was published by St. Martin’s Press in 2007. Tate lives in Berlin, Germany.