Holiday Snapshots is a 1999 photography collection of black and white and color images by British photographer David Hamilton, continuing his interest in adolescent girls, nudity and erotica. The book includes an introduction by Liliane James and captions by James and Hamilton's ex-wife Gertrude Hamilton.
The book contains many images previously unpublished from sessions dating back to the 1970s and 1980s, not only Hamilton's formal portraits, but also candid images of his models indoors and poolside, diving, leaping, stretching, playing or sunbathing. Thus there is a much greater variety of poses here than in previous books. The book is published by Edition Olms, and has three hundred and forty photos over two hundred and fifteen pages.[1]
Holiday Snapshots received a limited distribution because it was privately printed and intended to be sold primarily via Hamilton's website, Hamilton-Archives.com.[2] Some European editions can be purchased online.[3]
Although this title was placed on the list of "banned" books in New Zealand, so were Hamilton's Twenty Five Years of an Artist and Private Collection. Dreams of a Young Girl and The Age of Innocence, on the other hand, remain "unrestricted." Such classifications tend to reveal not the controversial nature of the content of these books, but the contentiousness of the censors.[4] Needless to say, all of Hamilton's titles, including this one, when available, sell openly in other countries, including the United States.