Dieux du Stade / Locker Room Nudes: The French National Rugby Team (Gods Of The Stadium) [Import] [Hardcover]

Francois Rousseau (Photographer), Original French Language Edition (Preface), Dieux du Stade (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2004

This remarkable collection of candid nude photos of France's national rugby team goes beneath the uniform to reveal what real jocks look like underneath it all. Each image taken by leading French photographer François Rousseau depicts the rugby player_alone or with teammates_undressing, lounging on the bench, showering. Locker Room Men is at once a celebration of athletes and the beauty of the male form as well as the fulfillment of the fantasy of going behind the scenes in a winning team's locker room. Sure to appeal to both gay men and straight women, these photos are unusual because the men are not models. They don't work out just to look good_and look good they do_their bodies are sculpted by winning victories on the field. They aren't made up, shaved, or prettified in any way. These are some of the world's best rugby players_brawny, tough, competitive. Since 1999, the French national rugby team has posed nude or semi-nude for an annual calendar. The purpose behind the calendar was to get wider "exposure" for rugby and the team. In 2004, François Rousseau was selected as photographer, and he successfully brought out the sensual beauty and sexiness inherent in the rugby players' rough and tumble exterior. The calendar became a cult hit, and thus the book was born so that even more of these unparalleled images could be savored. Whether or not rugby will become more popular in this country remains to be seen, but this book will certainly raise the game's profile...

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Dieux du Stade (2004)
• Language: French
• ASIN: B000EAPU2E
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,991,232 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely beautiful, February 20, 2008

By 

Kurt R. Brown (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dieux du Stade / Locker Room Nudes: The French National Rugby Team (Gods Of The Stadium) (Hardcover)

This is a GORGEOUS book. The printing quality is excellent, and it is full of beautiful photographs of beautiful men. Highly recommended.

5.0 out of 5 stars Men, Naked and of Surpassingly Great Beauty and Strength, Sumptuously and Sensitively Photographed, May 12, 2009

By 

Gerald Parker "Gerald Parker" (Rouyn-Noranda, QC., Dominion of Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dieux du Stade / Locker Room Nudes: The French National Rugby Team (Gods Of The Stadium) (Hardcover)

The extraordinarily beautiful and lavishly produced calendars and videodiscs that have come out year by year of photography, of supremely fine calibre, of the rugby players who are members of the team, Dieux du Stade, Paris, and of their "guests", i.e. other rugby players from teams all over the world, have become iconographic monuments of the nude and nearly-nude male body. However, this book, drawing upon the wealth of photos and stills from the videos, perhaps inlucding yet other images as well of the same and perhaps other men, surpasses even previous products.

This book is gorgeous; it is overwhelming; it is an exalted tribute to the male body and to the god-like figure of the professional athlete. There is something almost supernatural at times in the supernal beauty and naturalness, as Rousseau captures them for immortality, of these varied and magnificent men that makes one tremble, not just with sexual arousal (but that, too, and how!), but with wonder at the sheer grace, strength, and allure of the male human form and of the photographer's art.

Judging from the copyrights, which are given up to 2007, well in the future at the time of the book's publication, one presumes that there are images and probably players, too, not yet included in the videodiscss and calendars that have come out to date.

This is a lavish book and more than well worth its price, a fine monographic tribute to the photographer, Francois Rousseau, as well as to such men who, astoundingly, have been permitting themselves to be photographed so intimately. There is little written text, so whether the buyer is English- or French-speaking (or of any other language), the book will be a worthwhile purchase for truly anyone, anywhere in the world. Women and gay men will thrill at these photos, but so will lovers more generally of the nude in art of Rousseau's level as he has attained it with the camera!