Customer Reviews

Fully Exposed: The Male Nude in Photography

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For those of you who are true connoisseurs of male nude photography, this book is indispensible. I guarantee you will find pictures you have never seen before, as author Cooper had access to the Kinsey Vaults to prepare this book. The text is fascinating, but complex. The range of the sources of the photos (from medical files, to glossy beefcake, to news photos of streakers, to war photos, to personal photo collections, etc.) is staggering. You will be both aroused and appalled by the photos you see. All photos are in black & white. Frontal nudity, erections, and photos of sex action are shown. In spite of the titilation factor, this book is a serious treatise on the history and psychology of male nude photography and of society's reaction to it. This book is an incredible achievement.

Emmanuel Cooper in FULLY EXPOSED succeeds in presenting a history, a fine argument for photography as a Fine Art form, and then proceeds to take us on a picaresque journey through the various aspects of photography of the male nude. There is much more here than meets the perusing eye. Cooper includes the anthropologic studies made by investigating photographers, takes the lid off the cauldron of the controversy of "documenting" maleness and of medical oddities (which in other hands could be voyeuristic), and then proceeds to fill his meaty document with generous illustrations. Cooper's writing style, while very informed, is casual and reader friendly. A good addition to the photography lovers' library.

Cooper's test is fascinating and extensive. Unfortunately the reproduction of the photographs is TERRIBLE! At least this is true of the paperback edition and mine was sold as and seemed new. If you must have it, buy the cheapest used copy you can find. A big disappointment.

I think it could have been better prepared. I thought it could have been better edtied