Customer Reviews

Men Two

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His photographs look well beyond nudity to see beautiful muscles and sensuous shadows; there are facial expressions that reflect thought, realism, desire and not just self-consciousness. It's refreshing to see the male nude treated with a real eye for form, shape and texture.

Men Two follows much the same format and style as Klaus Gerhart's Embracing Men book. The theme is young athletic nude men, usually photographed in isolation against natural settings. Sometimes he photographs two men together, but mostly the men are alone and their shape is contrasted against nature such as showing the muscles of young man's legs against the twisted image of drift wood or the curves of a young man's butt against the sand dunes that mirror or repeat the same curves. Thus the photographer reveals his philosophy that male beauty is a natural phenomena to be enjoyed and viewed the same way that any beautiful object in nature may be viewed. Remember that in some cultures, people may admire trees, rocks, waves, clouds, insects, animals, and all manner of nature but the human form is viewed as forbidden, sinful, shameful and not to be admired for it evokes lust. The issue here is that Gerhart would probably say that lust is a natural phenomena, just the same as admiration for human beauty. Another clue as to the artistic philosophy of Gerhart is that the face is often not emphasized and more emphasis is placed on the body. This removes the photographs from the realm of portrait and recognizability. The human figures are sometimes dwarfted by the natural settings, again speaking to the role of man in this natural world.

The work is beautiful, with around 60 to 80 photographs in black and white. I admire Gerhart's ability to integrate the beautiful male into his work while maintaining a steady esthetic vision. Never really commercial, despite the beauty of the models, the works remain fine art.