Customer Reviews

Erotic Art Photography (Temporis)

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This is a high quality book, beautifully printed with a wonderful range of photos from the period (1895 through to 1935). It is a book comparable in quality to Allen's Premiere Nudes (from the same era), which I also have. It is a large book and most of the photos are full page. As for the photos, they are both clear and richly printed, which I have rarely seen for this era. It covers a range of styles and photographic processes. There are many examples of unretouched photos, thankfully due to these photos coming from private collections. A book I can recommend to connoisseurs and collectors of this era.

This really is a fabulous photographic coffee-table book. Not only is it superbly produced; it also contains mostly previously unseen photographic work from the 1839-1939 era. It's easy for Americans to forget that much of the original development of photography took place in France. Nude photography began almost with the birth of the technology. The French led the way in using the nude in every art form including the nude photograph. The legendary French postcards really were as infamous as rumored. They were also quite common. In fact, postcards of all kinds were used to record and broadcast news events. That was also true in the United States but didn't include sending postcards of nudes through the mails.
As I was enjoying the book and receiving a refresher course in photographic history, I found it amazing that all the lovely models in the hundreds of images were long since dead and buried. Their individual beauty exists only in the surviving photographs of them at their physical prime and they were indeed beautiful. The collection includes some pleasant surprises such as the only known nude torso picture of actress Sarah Bernhardt and several pictures of Josephine Baker. This books is compiled from the author's own extensive collection of erotic B&W and hand colored photographs. He deliberately didn't include previously published images from well-known and famous photographers (Brassai, Kertesz, Krull or Man Ray) preferring to expose largely unknown images to the public. There aren't any pornographic images in this volume. There are situations which hint at lesbian and S&M relationships, but that is mostly in the mind of the viewer. The few men included in the book are usually dressed and serve only as props, no pun intended. And there are some works of the mysterious Mr. X included. He and his friends are shown in a few of the examples of the thousands of pictures he took. The book does contain many examples of humor, most of it intended, but some accidental. Once the reader has read the book he will understand the reference to men as props. This is an excellent book for so many reasons most of which haven't been mentioned in this review, but will be obvious to the viewer of the volume.
After reading this book the reader will realize that one of the sad results of World War II on France was that it brought to an end the dominance of French nude photography and France's dominance of any of the photography or cinematic art forms. It was the French bureaucrats and censors ultimate revenge on the freedom of the arts. And that result was truly unfortunate. If the viewer of this book reads French they will receive extra satisfaction from being able to understand the French captions printed on many of the actual postcards, business/visiting cards and photographs. This is a beautiful and lovingly done art book. The author's passion for the subject is obvious and that enthusiasm permeates every word and image included in the book. This is book is a very nostalgic trip back in time.

This is one of the best books of vintage erotica ever published! Collector and dealer, Alexandre Dupouy, has been a lifelong student of archeology and photography. And he's melded these two interests into a single-minded and scholarly pursuit of amassing the erotic works of all the early photography masters. His archive is an astonishing omnibus of rare and unique erotic photos and this new book is a breathtaking glimpse into that almost forgotten world. Erotic Art Photography is packed from cover to cover with full-page images showcasing the work, most of which is unique to this book, of numerous photographers including Pierre Louÿs, Guglielmo Plüschow, Vincenzo Galdi, Constan, Henri Oltramare, José-Maria Canellas, François Bertin, André Dignimont, Grundworth, Michel Simon, Albert Wyndham, Yva Richard, and dozens of others.

It's important to stress that this is not just another presentation of the same images featured in so many other books of vintage erotica - most are rare pieces never before published in book form. It's a spectacular ride. And the production quality is almost up to par with the immaculate contents. It's a huge, superbly crafted book, 12x11" in size, and 256 pages.

The history and insights provided by Dupouy in the preface as well as in each of the six sections of the book is not only an erudite and informative study, it is also an obvious conduit for Dupouy's love for the medium. These photos are a precious treasure to him and he shares not only his knowledge here, but his love and enthusiasm as well.

The only defect of this book is its inaccurate title. It's called "Erotic Art Photography", nevertheless, I would not consider most of the photographs in this book "erotic", and if you consider that there is a difference between "artistic nudes" and "erotic art", you probably would also consider these pictures in the former group.

Now, do not misunderstand me, it is absolutely beautiful, showing you the artistic nude photography through the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Both my wife and I enjoyed it tremendously. Nudes as old as 1850s, a wonderful collection.