Customer Reviews

Playboy: 50 Years: The Photographs

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Although it is a well put together book, I was a bit disappointed moreso from some of my own expectations. If you are a PLAYBOY fan, buy this book! I was, however, expecting to see all the playmates which did not happen :-(

The photography is first class as they had selected the best of the best from its archive of over 10 million images. It is a brilliant review of 50 years of not only PLAYBOY but the history of that past era and it is well worth it.

This is a wonderful 240 page photography book of the 50 years of Playboy photography. It opens with the Playboy story, and how it grew into the great company it is today. The book then shifts over to the importance of the centerfold. I was nowhere near born when a lot of the beautiful women such as Ellen Stratton, Liv Lindeland, and Eve Meyer were posing, but I can see why the magazine was so successful. There is also a nice frontal and backside poster of Nancy Cameron included.

The next chapter includes just a few of the many people that have contributed to the Playboy interview over the many years, talking about various controversial issues.

There are more pictures included, this time of some beautiful celebrities, such as Cindy Crawford, Kim Basinger, Pamela Anderson, and Stephanie Seymour among a sea of others.

The lifestyles section was very intriguing, to say the least. There are a lot of great photography shots in this section that absolutely stunned me. I cannot put into words what this is like, so go see for yourself!

There is an artwork gallery of some fascinating and very detailed pictures. A lot of beautiful work that will leave you breathless, as well as a very disturbing piece of art that has scarred my mind forever. Finally, there is the covers section that they have included. I liked some of the old school covers that they had, some were very unique and others, while simple, still caught your attention.

Overall I found this book very enjoyable. For younger fans of Playboy, such as myself, this gives only a small sense of what Playboy was, and how it has grew since then. For the older fans, I guess it will be nothing new, but it will be a nice trip down memory lane.

This book is a fine review of Playboy magazine's 50-year history of ground-breaking photography. Not just the Playmates--though there are plenty here, but also the cars, the clothes, the music and the lifestyle that were part and parcel of the Playboy mythos are well-represented. The farther back you yourself go in Playboy's history, the more you will enjoy this book. My only regret is that it should have been a much longer book. There were millions of photographic images considered for publication; many more of them would have been even more welcome.

For a photographic book, i was expecting better quality pictures. To me, most of the pictures look like "pictures of pictures". if you expect the high quality crisp images and excellent color quality images of Playboy, i think you will be disappointed. I am.

This book gives some great photographs over the past fifty years, but I was hoping for a little more than what I got. There wasn't enough photo's of playmates. And plus I really didn't think the collection of playmates they put in there were really that great. Back in the mid to late 90's Jenny McCarthy was all over Playboy and none of her photos are included in the book, other then a non nude cover she was on. Pretty sad being she was a Playmate of the Year. I never saw any of Carmen Electra either. I really think they should of did more like what they did for the January 2004 magazine and had every centerfold picture of each playmate in the book. But not in such a small picture. There was a lot of huge playmates and celebrites that posed nude that they didn't put in the book, but yet they put in not as big stars as Darva Conger & Sandra Bernhard in it. I also noticed they edited one of the Madonna photos in this book. When she posed way back in the 80's she had armpit hair and they gave her a shave through modern technology. So for all I know there could be other photos that were edited from their orginial magazine photos. I feel this book was poorly thought out by its creators and could of been done much better to celebrate the past 50 years. Maybe I expected too much, but when the book says 50 years the photographs, I think they should of at least had more playmates than just 36 different playmates (most of them were from prior to 1980).

"Playboy The Photographs" wasn't a bad book, it just wasn't good enough to buy. My recommendation is to look at it at a book store and save yourself the money. Check out "The Playboy Book" and "Inside The Playboy Mansion". These were vastly superior books compared to the "Photographs".

The photography of this PLAYBOY publication is exceptional, alluring and exquisite. The essence of these beautiful women are well documented through the insightful lenses of professional photographers dedicated to their subject in these esoteric and eclectic photographs. Perhaps obsessive in nature the object of this photographic compendium is just that - a dedication to nature and the instincts of man.

The actual reproduction of the photographs could have been more vividly presented. Many of the pictures unfortunately look flat as printed in this book. That is the one drawback I found with this book.

Women shun playboy with exploitation yells while men flock to the magazine racks to keep playboy an institute. The bottom line is that Playboy is a mix between male fantasy and giving ladies an opportunity to reach fame in tactful photos. Ironically, the magazine that start all the scandals has converted into the gentleman of adult magazines. This book takes you down the past 50 years to demonstrate how Playboy has remain true to their intentions of presenting lovely ladies in daring, yet tasteful, photos.

I purchased this as a gift for my husband and he absolutely loves it. The book is done very tastefully and it's truly a work of art.

Great book. Bought on a whim for my 23 year old son and we were all taken by it. What history and great beauties. Fast delivery, perfect condition.