Customer Reviews

The Boys from Ipanema

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'Alegria' is best translated from the Portuguese as 'joie de vivre ' and that is the sense that pervades this excellent book of photographs by the German photographer Frank Waldecker who lives in Rio de Janeiro four months of the year. As he states in his preface, 'Between 2001 and 2009, I photographed a wide variety of men in and around Rio. An attractive face, a seductive smile and natural manliness were important factors when choosing models. I was chiefly attracted by the combination of natural sensuality with a kind of naïve playfulness very common among Brazilian men."

The images are the result of Waldecker's imaginative and curious lens between 2001 and 2009 with passers-by of the calçadão: on Sundays, this avenue is closed for cars and only pedestrians, joggers and bikers are allowed to walk through it. According to Waldecker, 'In Rio people love to show off their bodies, and work hard to keep them in good shape. Full-frontal nudity is, however, taboo in Brazil. People there are well aware that a skimpily clad body stimulates the imagination better, and is far more erotic than total nudity. So, my job as a photographer was not to present the superficial beauty of a perfect, well-trained body, but far more to reveal the person behind the facade. The result is a book with a very personal view of a people and their country, both of which I have learned to love very deeply.'

And the rest of the book is pure 'alegria'. These photographs are casual, non-posed (for the most part) image of playful, healthy, sensuous men seemingly unaware of anything except enjoying their freedom, their bodies, and the admiring looks they receive. They are seductive, fresh, untainted boys who make the PR for Brazil even more enticing. This is a book celebrating the sun on Ipanema as much as the men of that beach. Try to resist! Grady Harp, January 12