Customer Reviews

Graphis Nudes 4 (v. 4)

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'Graphis' is the 'Science' magazine of the visual design world, the premiere outlet for the most thoughtful and innovative in imagery and image-makers. Books published by Graphis give every reason to expect the world's best pictures, figure photography in the case of this series of books. Although there's a commercial purpose here as an artists' showcase, this delivers the very finest artistry in praise of the human form.

There's no one mood or style here. There's a mix of color, B&W, and one striking monochrome with just one trrace of color (#58). Some of the photos capture the simple elegance of a figure (#1, 11, 29, 61). Others (#17, 27) create abstractions from utterly literal rendition of the body's line or surface. Others (#87, 91, 96) draw more on classic portraiture. The pictures aren't all about conventional beauty (#6, 23, 64, 66), though many (#49, 51, 93) are. Bare skin predominates, but is sometimes draped (#46, 81, 84), decorated (#18, 30, 82), or complemented with other visual elements (#35). A few image explore techniques of image capture (#48) or printing (#44). Unlike many collections, these photos cover wide ranges of skin tones (#97, 24, 32, 15) and shapes of body, with nearly as many male models as female.

There's a lot more to say, but "writing about art is like dancing about architecture." Only the images themselves can convey their messages. These are messages well worth understanding, and well worth coming back to.

//wiredweird

If you, dear reader, know the Graphis Nudes volumes 1 to 3, buy this one too. It's just as great as the other ones (I now own all 4 of them). If you don't know the series, start saving money, because if you buy one of them you will want them all. I do have a whole shelf of books with nude photography. These volumes are my absolute favourites. If I could take only 10 books with me from my ~1000 book mini-library, all 4 Graphis Nudes volumes would be in there.

Every single photo in this book is beautiful (In most other books I usually am not very fond of 30 to 50% of the pics).
If you are into very provocative photographs, this book might be too quiet for you. Most pictures are black and white or in a limited color palette. The photographers rather concentrate on form and texture of the human body then on provocative poses. The artists in this book play with beautiful lines and curves, strong light-shadow contrasts, or the contrast between a soft human body and rough nature. It is a praise of the beauty of the human body in all its forms. If you like classic black and white photography, get this book, I am sure you will like the color photographs in there too. (Oh, and see whether you can get the other three volumes ;)

Some more facts: The paper of the book is heavy and semi glossy, and the print quality is magnificent. Photographs are on the back and front of the page, so no empty pages (don't worry, no shine-through with this paper). Also the binding is very well done. The book opens easily and lies open flat without having to press down on it. There are many black/white photos, but also dualtone photos and color photos.

I usually do not endorse or praise any products, but with this one (and the whole series) I do. It is definitely worth the price.

Graphis presents a book of excellent fine art nudes. The pages are heavy gauge and the pictures are maximized in the space without going edge to edge. My only complaint is that the information on each photographer is stuffed together in the back. There is plenty of room on the page opposing the photograph for this relevant information.

I love nude art and photography from an artistic and appreciative standpoint. I have several books of nude photography. Most use airbrushed looking models, but this one has a little bit of everything from tiny to large, white to black, male and female, etc. This has definitely put my other books to shame! I just wish they could have included more male pics since most are of women (which honestly probably make more beatiful nude models than males ;-).

I have the full collection o Graphis Nudes, volumes 1 through 4. The best buy I've made get. They look really cool in my living room...