Customer Reviews

Familiar Men: A Book of Nudes

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Familiar Men takes on unfamiliar subject matter: nude males. In Western visual art, women have long gotten the nude treatment, thoroughly and repeatedly. In recent times female nudes are even becoming slightly more diverse in their appearance (Edison contributed greatly to this diversification in her other book of photo portraits, Women en Large). But men are less frequent subjects of photography, and nude men even less so. Mostly what's out there from a photo-visual perspective are chiseled youth with disaffected eyes modeling underwear--almost nudes who are barely there.

This paucity of portraiture is rightly addressed in Familiar Men. Not only do the men represent a wide range of ages, races, sizes, and abilities, but their gazes show you clearly that these men are not objects, but subjects. They know what they are doing. They thought about revealing themselves for the camera, with all of its inherent risks, and went for it.

This book is a proud, strong presentation of male vulnerability, and the black-and-white photography is beautiful itself. I'm a big fan of art as a medium for social change, and this is a wonderful addition to discussions around masculinity, beauty, and the human form.

Real men pose nude.

For anyone who is lucky enough to have seen "Women En Large", also by Laurie, this book is equally sumptuous andrefreshing.And though the subject this time is the male nude, the treatment is just as direct and honest and loving, and also as polished and serene as before. However, in "Familiar Men" we can see the artist maturing. The photographs are studies in delicacy and intimacy: these are not jarring images by the likes of Jan Saudek, out to shock his audience and make a name for himself on the rebound. It seems to me that Laurie uses the nude to elicit the simplicity and honesty and humilityof the human being, something she can only achieve by stripping off all the covers and camouflage we clothe ourselves with to conceal the fact that we are all vulnerable and frail. And in her nudes it is refreshing to see the quiet
pride in ourselves that can come through when there is an excellent rapport between artist and subject, where neither is trying to sell each other or their audience a bill of goods so uncomfortably prevalent these days as we drown in a sea of hype. Nothing like that here. No pretense. Nothing phony. A soothing visual and psychological delight.

I have this book in my stack of books on the coffee table in my living room, where my guests wait while I'm putting the finishing touches on dinner. It always ends up at the top of the pile somehow, and it's usually the guys who check it out first. The photos are simply gorgeous, so I'm sure that has something to do with it. But my straight male friends tell me how rare and cool it is to find a thoughtful piece on what it's like to be a man in our world, or to see things that reflect their experiences, and I think that's why people I know have liked the book. It's unusual. It's beautiful in a way that is comfortable and thought-provoking at once, in my opinion. Anyway, I love it, and some of the men in my life will be getting it for Xmas this year.

I liked this book a lot. It has real portraits of real people. The men in it looked so happy and normal -- like people we all know. The personality of each subject showed through in a way that made these portraits very appealing.

I like these photos very much. I believe this is the first set of male nudes that I can say that of. They're really not eroticized, and they're not mythologized either. These are pictures of guys who are pretty comfortable in their bodies.

And they're very fine pictures. I'm picky, especially about people pictures (which I've been trying to take myself for 30 years), and these work excellently for me. They're about the subjects, not primarily about the photographer. And they're all different.

The fine *technical* quality of the photos and the printing of the book don't hurt a thing either.

You should give these photos a try.

This book is one I've come back to several times as it gives me pictures of various types of men in different stages/sonditions of their life. The photographs show male sexuality in a very honest, sincere and touching way. Seeing men with real bodies is the most refreshing as their is no pretense, no relentless striving to be the "super male" found within the pages of this book.