Customer Reviews

Bernard of Hollywood: The Ultimate Pin-Up Book (Specials)

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Bernard of Hollywood Pin-Ups is a fun and fast way to get started recapturing the look and feel of the '40's and '50's styled Pin-Up Photography. Of course, this book's instruction applies to anytime, but the examples shown are all Classic Pin-up. Each page comes with a short summary of the thought behind each full page Black & White photo and a small diagram showing lighting and camera position. A bio of Bernard of Hollywood and the philosophy behind his photographs completes the book. It's straight forward and to the point, a worth while addition to a Pin-Up book collection, and a simple instructive guide for beginning photographers.

The photographs of Bruno Bernard are historic treasures documenting a period of Americana when purity and innocence masked the prurient. As teenagers when my friends and I joined the military after Pearl Harbor, we considered ourselves to be tough men; our images of naughtiness were induced by the pin-up.

The Ultimate Pin-Up is a coffee table collection of beautiful photographs--the colors are brilliant, the hair styles and clothing which drape the subjects who found their way to Hollywood or Las Vegas in the forties and fifties are significant representations of the American spirit post WWII; this being an era of US military might and rapid technological changes. Decades ago I felt these photographs were of loose women yet as I peruse the book I am amused by the sweetness and demurenss of the models and their poses.

The book is printed with high quality paper, the collection is heavy so it needs to rest on a table. It is fun to peruse; each page delights and tickles my memories of the days before the younger generation elected JFK to the White House.

This book makes me happy. Bernard of Hollywood will be remembered for his documenting history. Although the book is filed with the topic "Sex" I feel it should be referenced as "History". The images are certainly "Art". Smithsonian.

This is truly the ultimate pin-up book. I have seen some of these photos over the years and it's satisfying to put a name to them. But what's really surprising is the vast quantity of output this man had. He was certainly prolific and there's no question as to why he was sought after by the rich and glamorous. He was a genius. These are amazing pictures and portraits of some of the most stunning women on the planet from the 40's and 50's. We'll never know another era like that. Beautiful clothes, costumes and jewelry adorn these women from a time when glamour was GLAMOUR. From starlets to cheesecake models to showgirls to stars---they're all here and captured in all their splendor. Even the stunning 50's stripper Lili St.Cyr is here in rare and incredible photos. Thanks to Susan Bernard (from "Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!") her fathers' work is receiving another round of applause and admiration. This book is embedded with legend. A MUST for auteurs of glamour photography and a MUST for nostalgia lovers. Recommended HIGHLY.

I like this book. I wish there were more lighting diagrams, but the images and image content are excellent. It's great way to see inside Hollywood of that era. The book is fulled with full page color and black and white photographs.

Bruno Bernard - "Bernard of Hollywood", as his sobriquet ran - was one of classic Hollywood's greatest glamour and pin-up photographers. His specialty was "cheesecake" photography, of which he was the grand master, but he photographed untold legions of the loveliest of vintage Hollywood's actresses. Marilyn Monroe? Jayne Mansfield? Joan Collins? Lili St. Cyr? Anita Ekberg? Mamie Van Doren? Eartha Kitt? Candy Barr? Monique Van Vooren? They're all here, along with many, many others.

Susan Bernard, his daughter, has assembled hundreds of his best images into a truly dazzling work. Only Taschen, the German publisher renowned for its ultra-high-quality books on all sorts of unusual subjects, could truly have done justice to the project, and so they have, in a gorgeous oversize format crammed with full-page photography on high-quality paper, accompanied by extensive texts in English, French and German.

One of the most idiotic things I've done in the last five years is to sell off my first copy of this book. I needed to raise money, but that was no excuse. Works of art like this should never, ever be disposed of once you bring them into your collection, come hell or high water. Thankfully, I was able to get ahold of another copy this summer - and even more thankfully, for pretty close to the original list price. That's a minor prodigy in itself; because this book is in such high demand, sellers are naturally going to ask a corresponding premium. As well they should. This book is worth every single cent you may pay for it.

No one...and I mean NO ONE...who claims to be a fan of classic glamour photography or old-time Hollywood can be taken seriously as such without this book in their library. I'm serious. If you're reading this review, you're interested enough to buy this book - so do it today.