Junge Manner [Hardcover]

Herbert List (Author), Stephen Spender (Author), Max Scheler (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson; 1st edition (May 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0500541477
• ISBN-13: 978-0500541470
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,589,526 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An exquisite volume of classic work., December 12, 2001

By 

ch0pper "ch0pper" (SOUTHAMPTON, Hampshire United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Junge Manner (Hardcover)

This large-format book contains photos of young men taken from the 1920s through to the 1950s. They are amazingly fresh and vibrant, sexy, modern yet classical, and show this great photographer's vision and love of the male form. The models are for the most part aged between 18-25.

It's amazing to think that even some of the oldest of these images are so fresh that they may have come from the 1980s. Sometimes the clothing (of which there is little) shows the period in which the pictures were made but most of them have a tingling vibrancy and liveliness that belies their age. It's odd to think that the beautiful naked youth from the 1920s is probably no longer alive, yet his beauty and grace have, by List's skill, transcended time and we get the chance to wonder about how he lived; what he made of his life; and to ponder on how youthful beauty, though transient, can last forever.

This book is a truly wonderful addition to the bookshelf of any connoiseur of both early photography and male beauty.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tribute to a Master Photographer, May 5, 2011

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Junge Manner (Hardcover)

Herbert List was a quiet genius, a photographer whose work influenced many great photographers. List (October 7, 1903-April 4, 1975) was a German photographer who worked for magazines including Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and Life and was associated with Magnum Photos. 'His austere, classically-posed black-and-white compositions, particularly of male nudes, taken in Italy and Greece have been highly formative for modern photography, with contemporary fashion photographers like Herb Ritts being clearly influenced by List's style. He is also noted for his erotic street photography.' A man born to wealth he was able to travel to Brazil, Guatemala and Costa Rica making photographs he called 'composed visions where [my] arrangements try to capture the magical essence inhabiting and animating the world of appearances.'

In this book, Junge Männer, are his major works of young men form the 1920s to the 1950s and his respect of ancient artifacts and forms is evident. Though to today's eye they appear a bit static with too much concentration on the posing, the results are elegant examples of how creative black and white portraiture can be. His sensitive respect for light an dark is reflected in his careful placement of drapery and other addenda to his focused male figures. This book was published by Twin Palms Publishers in 1988 when they began their publishing in Altadena, California. Jack Woody and staff wrote 'During 1929, Herbert List began to photograph the young men he knew and traveled with throughout Greece, Italy, and Germany. He captured the innocence of their beauty and physical prowess before Hitler's politics commandeered those qualities for his own bleak purposes. The relationship, in List's mind, of these young men to Greek statues is emphasized by the occasional juxtaposition of nude or semi-nude figures with fragments of Greek statues.'

On many levels this is a collector's item - not only for the presence of Herbert List's images but also for the history of Twin Palms Publishers. Grady Harp, May 11

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful tribute to this part of List's work, October 1, 2011

By 

Adrian M. - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Junge Manner (Hardcover)

Herbet List was a masterful photographer. His composition is impeccable, and his sense of space, angles and shapes are dazzling seen through his lens. Sadly during his lifetime, some of his most exquisite photographs were never published or exhibited because the subjects were men. It doesn't seem right in a way, that such antiquated taboos about homosexuality and male nudity meant that images that are unquestionably works of art could not be celebrated.

This book is a fitting tribute to this previously hidden part of List's work. I should mention though that I bought both this book and The Essential Herbert List: Photographs 1930-1972. While Junge Manner is a great coffe table type book, if I had to get just one I would recommend The Essential book. It is a great deal smaller in dimension, but has many more pages that include almost all of the photographs from Junge Manner, as well as a tremendous overview of his other work and some brilliant essays about his life and process. So while I enjoy the timeless quality of the collection of photographs in Junge Manner, I felt like I really got to know and understand Herbert List as a photographer through the Essential book.