Jan Saudek: Realities [Hardcover]

Jan Saudek (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2002

Drawing on classical paintings, historical portraiture, and 19th-century pornographic studio photographs, the erotic images of Jan Saudek reveal a world of fantasy where artistic play and expression are given free range. Using elaborate backdrops and magical costumes, Saudek is both voyeur and participant, photographer and model, shifting back and forth in a style that lends the term autoportraiture new meaning. These 146 color photographs, featuring new and previously unpublished images with Saudek's commentaries, are as much about the artist as about the characters he creates. As Saudek states, "I don’t have the capacity to portray other people’s lives. I am portraying my own." "Spending time with Saudek’s images is an unsettling experience, a roller-coaster ride of attraction and repulsion, confirmation and confrontation." — The Spectator

Product Details

• Hardcover: 196 pages
• Publisher: Arena Editions; First Edition edition (September 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1892041618
• ISBN-13: 978-1892041616
• Product Dimensions: 12.1 x 9.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,313,402 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not For The Shallow, January 17, 2003

By 

"2bymeta4" (Dayton, Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jan Saudek: Realities (Hardcover)

Jan Saudek's photographs are certainly not for the backwoods Playboy fan; Saudek's work is much deeper and tinged with the Eastern European candor and fantasy akin to a Jerzy Kosinski tale. Saudek's literary narrative is firmly established in each image-story which is made more believable - as all good stories are - by his use of real, imperfect models. Saudek continues his story-plays by adding color to his prints in a very loose manner as if to wink at us as he embellishes the sometimes acrid image with a thin, sweet confection. This collection of Saudek's images gives a complete range of his work and is of excellent print quality; a rarity today at this price. As this edition demonstrates, Saudek is a major player in keeping the 'fine art' in the photographic medium while others play with computers.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Blends traditional images with elements of the bizarre, January 5, 2003

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jan Saudek: Realities (Hardcover)

Jan Saudek's Realities features the author's nude photography which blends traditional images with elements of the bizarre. All ages, sexes, and manner of men and women are included in a title which can be as shocking as eye-opening.

4 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not very classical photos, October 30, 2002

By 

Joe (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jan Saudek: Realities (Hardcover)

Quiet a wide range of faked up "hand painted" photos, with subject varying from fat to slim, tall to short, male and female. I found some to be gross, some stupid, others interesting, some sexual, some quaint, mostly nudes but not always - but overall none struck me as simply good looking pictures. This book is for explorers of photography more than anything else. If the book cover is available - that's actually a bit more than what you get. I took someone's claim of "classic" photos and the lounging woman holding a skull (nude female Hamlet) to mean revamping the good-ole, graceful and refined (sometimes naughtily refined) nude classics like Venus emerging from the sea, various Greco-Roman statues, and flappers in breast revealing gowns - instead, most of these are just "experimental" photos which owe only a muddied color look to being classic. Maybe classics for the photographer - not really classic photos. I wish the author would go ahead and revamp the old classics, providing a modern "French postcard" series of photos. Oh well, you can only wish and hope that some day someone will...