Customer Reviews

The Mammoth Book of Illustrated Erotica (Mammoth Books)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Seven quick points:
First, note the dimensions of this book: 5 1/2" wide by 7 5/8" tall by 1 1/4" thick. About my hand's length tall and a thumb's length thick, not "several inches thick" as one of the other reviewers states. None of the pictures are large, most are 4" by 6 1/4" or so.
Second, note that the pictures are BLACK AND WHITE ONLY. Very artsy, yeah. Not very erotic if you're not color blind.
Third, there are only a few photos from each of several artists, not enough to get a real flavor for any of them.
Fourth, many of the bios of the photographers are pretty funny due to being so pretentious and self-centered. Who cares when these people got their first camera or whether they do photography for a living? The photos should speak for themselves, but so few of them do.
Fifth, lots of bondage. OK, lots of people like that, but be forewarned. If seeing women degraded upsets you, buy something else.
Sixth, lots of pretentious crap photos. "Ooh, look at me! I'm a published photographer! I can take pictures of naked girls in front of walls where the paint is peeling!" "Jejune" is the word that comes to mind. That and "tired" and "derivative." Some good photos, but few memorable ones. None that are really erotic in the sense of conveying the power of sexuality. What you see is the way women try to make themselves attractive to men or other women.
Seventh, if you want links to porn web sites, here they are! Many of the photographers list their web sites in their bios, and the web sites have some public teasers but invite you to pay them your hard-earned money for some porno.
I wish I had something comparable to recommend instead, but unfortunately most visual erotica is of lower caliber. Is there anything out there that is erotic and high quality?

Erotica Notica

This is a wide selection of nude photography from a wide number of photographers. It's erotic only in the sense of naked women - a few photos have some sexual hints in a very PG-17 way, but otherwise the viewer has to be a pervert to think the majority are erotic (or be an immature heterosexual male who obsesses with female nudity and looses control of their fantasies).

Subject matter depends on the photographers and is widely diverse: the one most numerous theme is simply the naked woman facing the camera with nothing complex going on. Of the rest, some are of bondage, some body piercing, some non-nudes where the subject is naked skin of the back and buttocks (posture studies), some studies of the fall of light across skin, and some are even clothed women. A few are costume shots. A few are explicit and one or two concentrates on female anatomy close-up. Unlike another collection I viewed, there's very little shock-jock ugly photo's. Given the number of photos, there is not a true majority of anything but naked women.

Most models are professional female models - slender and attractive, with a few photos of less model-istic and more real women - who are still slender. White women dominate; Negro and Oriental models are in the minority. A few ladies are older but none are really aged.

In other words, this is pretty much the same-ole style of "glamor" photography you'll find just about anywhere. The selection is diverse, as mentioned, but often lacks true imagination. While a lot of people will find things they like and things they find silly and stupid (half the photos were silly to me), it also manages to leave out a lot of what may interest others.

Indeed, a good deal of the shots are dull, dark, and sometimes smudgy. Artsy to the point of being ruined. And of course, only black and white or single-toned.

The current price makes it quiet a nice deal for anyone who likes nude photography. But, I myself was still left hungry for something pretty, creative and original -- thus it's also liable to be a waste of money for many people. The one thing I will repeat: this is erotica only in the sense of being pictures of naked women, not in the sense of being sexually explicit pictures of men and women - or even women being sexually suggestive.

Yes, the photos are small and black-and-white, but they are very artistic, high quality, and erotic. I was surprised by my reaction to the black-and-white thing, because I don't generally like black-and-white photography, feeling that too much important visual information is lost without color. But in these photos, I felt it worked very well. For the price, this book is an excellent value, and it would be my guess that the photographers provided the images to the publisher at not charge, or even paid a fee to have their work displayed in this book as advertising, hoping they can sell images at their websites. These photographers are quite talented, however, combining artistry and eroticism very well, so some shopping sprees for prints for the wall would not be a bad idea. Just to clarify, as these things might make a difference to some, there are very few men in these photos, and even in the few images that have men at all, the women are featured and are clearly the primary subjects. Those looking for "equal time" with erotic male photography, or erotic male-female couples photography, would be disappointed by this book. There are some softcore female-female shots. Eroticism as used in the title here does not mean hardcore images of sexual activity, but as images of female beauty, from many different viewpoints, which will arouse those who find artistically-presented, suggestive, b&w images of nude women stimulating. I would guess that about ten percent of the images feature softcore bondage, which I thought were among the hotter ones, but some people might find a turnoff.

I own many erotic photography books, I use them for inspiration when I do my paintings, etc. and I must say, this is by far the best book in my collection. It has like 480 pages of black and white photography from some of the most creative photographers ever, and the shots are classy not smutty.

Every photo looks hand-picked with the finest of quality, almost all photos are female nudes, some with couples, some with props or backgrounds... but nothing looks the same. There are many poses, many closeups and zooms, a lot of things from far away, georgous shadows and lighting, and some of it is just mindblowing.

My particular favorites:
* page 179 a naked woman handcuffed squatting with her back shown to us with a cop car in front of her - all you see is her back, the handcuffs, and the cop lights and the outline of her body... and even though there is very little detail, you can SEE how perfect the photo is and it has much emotion in it.

* page 174 an aerial shot of a nude woman lying in the middle of railroad tracks as if she had been dumped... very very emotional photo

* page 163 just one of a selection of bizarre photos that leave you staring at the photo both impressive and eyebrow-raising

* page 377 a nude girl smoking a cigarette by the window and her eyes are just PIERCING you with her hands covering her face...

I could go on and on, each page (all pages feel glossy) has a huge photo and all the pictures are classy. This is pure erotic art. There are no open crotch shots. There is full nudity, but not one photo looks like porn. Each photographer is given a couple paragraphs describing him/her and then that photographer displays their work. There is not a lot of writing in this book, which I like. It is just art art art lots of beautiful photographs that just are wonderful!

I highly recommend this book above all others. I have many books and this one just outdoes them all!

I am very interested in photography, especially fetish fashion style photography. I found this book to be a great reference source for information about photographers in this field. Now this isn't one of those slick, flashy, fetish style books, it's full of B&W and toned images. One of the best things about this book is that there is a paragrah or so about each photographer, their style, or some other interesting facts and information about them. From this book I was able to get some good ideas of photographers that I liked and with their names I was able to in most cases find more of their work on the internet (a bit better way of searching, as opposed to entering fetish photos in a search engine).

My only complaint is that its size is very small, and it is hard to see the photographs in its full glory.

I definitely recommend this book, and it is an excellent value. It is literally stacked with hundreds of amazing thought provoking and innovative images. To be critical though, I found my only disappointment to be the flow of the book. I found the bock changes too rapidly in style, as a result of trying to accommodate the over 75 photographers showcased in this work. From this point of view I find the book a bit of a tease, as you only get a brief taste of the work by each artist, and for many of them you may find yourself wanting much more. For this reason I find this an excellent introduction to this form of photography, but because of it's wide scope, I find myself leafing from section to section to pick out those images I want to emulate most, and am constantly filtering out those I am not so fond of. Over all the book lives up to it's erotic title, although there are some photographers who's images have been unanimously identified by all that I have reviewed this work with as disturbing. However do not let this stop you from picking it up, for the price you will not be dissapointed.

I'm not really into fetish stuff, but this book is simply outstanding. Nothing but beautiful, mostly B&W photos of various models from various photographers. Some non-nude, most not. Just incredible stuff.

Capturing the beauty and mystique of women and all their parts. Some of the sexiest, most interesting shots of the breasts, legs and vagina that I've ever seen. Anything that can make the female form even MORE interesting is quite a thing. And that's what this book does.

i bought this book to be used as referent for nude drawing, and as such, i't proven to be very useful, a lot of very good quality photos, in black and white (all you color lovers, this is deffenetly not the book for you, though i love my erotics black and white, so i'm happy with that), pretty good level of print and reproduction which is also nice, and a good format, small and thick, so i can carry it around in by backpack and not just keep it on the bookshelf. it is a good introduction to nude photographers, some erotic, some artisitic, some more fashion oriented. and it's a good way to start if you know you are interested in nude photography and don't really know what you like.

...also, a technical problem, due to the format, the paperback cover's not holding out too well, and though it's not falling a part or anything (so far!) it's not exsactly the perfect solution to it.

I bought this book because it was reviewed in Playboy magazine. Not at all what I expected. Playboy cleverly displays the best photos from the book and leaves all the weird S&M stuff unshown. Many of the women shown aren't even pretty. Maybe I don't understand what "erotica" is, but this book wasn't what I expected. A small book too, about the size of TV Guide but thicker. I just found the book to have too much bondage and S&M for my tastes. Some images might border on pornographic too, if that bothers you. Nothing really graphic though.