Customer Reviews

Revenge: Limited Edition

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The photographs and the women are beautiful. The tone is hot and still playful.
The only thing that I was unhappy with was that the book's dimensions are a bit small. I think of a wider book when I think of a "coffee table book." (I can't recall where I heard that said.) As a consequence, the photographs which are 2 full pages look a bit odd, as they are cut through the middle by the seam of the book. It's not like a magazine that lays flat- this is a thick book. And, of course, the photographs that command two-page spreads are some of the best, so it's really quite a loss.

Deliciously decadent, Ellen von Unwerth's latest work has all the trappings of a classic, highly stylized tale of lasciviousness and a study in form, sexuality and society - albeit one tucked away behind the velvet curtain of propriety.

Titillating yet never prurient, "Revenge" depicts the erotic journeys of three young women who arrive for a respite at a rural manor. Instead, what follows is a series of sexually charged S&M scenes of the women as they become entagled with the Baroness (think "Rocky Horror Picture Show" with a stunning older woman in the antagonist role), her chauffer and her stable boy.

For von Unwerth, a fashion photographer whose work graces the pages of Vogue and Vanity Fair, the work represents a honing of her craft of merging desire with setting. When von Unwerth does it well, as she does here, each element is inextricable from the other.

Unexpected and as far from cliché as nearly any artist working today, "Revenge" stands out as a bar that won't be easy to clear for any who follow in her footsteps. - Fotophile.com

i haven't really noticed the size of the book when i ordered it (let that be a lesson to me, always remeber to do so) and i kind of expected somthing coffee book size, i don't know if i would dare spend that amount on somthing that's reading book size, but i'm really glad that i did.

this is a very nice and tempting book, it's made into several scenes each alaborated and very intence showing women in SM oriented scenes both as the controler and the controled while as the book goes the maids and slavegirls take revenge of their misstresses and tormentores. all this done in a playful mouthwatering sexy ways. i haven't been so turned on from photography for a long time. i love those grainy black and whites, it just give everything such a dirty erotic feel!

This is the first of von Unwerth's books that I really like. Her previous efforts, I believe, were amateurish. Revenge is pretty cool. It a story in pictures but who cares about the stories when the images are this sensual and erotic and the models so luscious. Each photo stands on its own and suggests a story within a story. In fact, I like looking at the pages out of order. Just put your finger in the book, open and make up your own story on whichever picture your finger lands on. The book is sexually edgy like Roy Stuart without the murkiness of Tony Ward. The all black and white format suggests a dreamy quality of innocence even though the book depicts sexual violence albeit mild. My sole complaint is that the I wish the format was larger.

Though Ellen is best noted for taking young teenage girls and making them look like French prostitutes, this is a nice departure. The 'story' is contrived and the reader would be better served by viewing the images and not having to be lead to justify the photos with awful writing. The series she creates are interesting, and the black and white images are very rich, though they often ramble on and could do better with about half the images.

Fairly erotic, but the bondage sequences seem to go on forever and you lose interest when you keep seeing the same shot from different angles.

The book is still cheap and worth owning.

Though I understand the opinions expressed in the other commentator's reviews on the book being too small a format. I found the small format to add to the intimacy of the content. The size is small and intimate a little book to tuck into a purse, a silken drawer, under a pillow. Its physical size matches the intimate unmentionables that the book plays with. The details of the small S&M line drawings on the inside covers also add to the intimacy and playfullness of her book. And of course, the photographs are gorgeous.

I love this book, i cant find any of her photos online besides her most famous, so im glad i dove in and purchased "Revenge". Ellen is definitley one of the best nude photographers of this Era and this work shows that. As for the book itself it is of amazing quality and has a very stout feel to it. others explain that it is a little small to their tastes, but i think the word for it is cute. this book was not intended to take after Sumo by Newton and as such is much smaller to even its redistributed copy. I gave 4 stars because even to my love for the craftsman ship put into the binding of the book their are a few pages that have a sort of wear line in the middle of them. I cant figure out what they are from other then pages possibly creating friction. they are very minor and probably is from a copy to copy basis, but of the entire book i maybe counted 3 pages like this so no biggie.

This is like looking through a lingerie catalog with a touch of light bondage thrown in. There is page after page of models in underwear in various settings and the occasional nudity and male model added for variety. It's a small sized book which is a negative but the black and white photos have an appealing grainy quality to them.

Ellen Von Unwerth holds a special place in glamour/erotic photography that few others do, being that she came from the modelling to being the photographer, and doing it well enough to rise to notice via an image for Guess? jeans as well as having done covers for Vogue and many more of that genre of glossy. Revenge is a story, the text only dispersed lightly through the book to give a thread for to bind the images together. Putting the story aside, the images are spectacular. Despite many of them involving bondage etc, the rapport she must have had with the models can still not just be seen but is FELT! In some of the more playful shots, models undressing each other in the gardens of having a mudfight or a moment's intimacy with one another etc the sense of the moment is so strong it's all one can do to wish they could have been there and been part of it with them. Whatever subtle differences there are between a model 'acting the part' under direction for the shot and just doing it, because they want to and they are just having a candid moment, is the difference that is caught in the images in this book. Those subtle diferences in the feel the models give take this book to an entirely new level that few photographers could ever expect to achieve. Awesome.
Cheers

I'm not into S&M, I don't even like to be tied up! But something about this naughty book makes you look closer and longer and even blush! I read the other reviews and knew the book wasn't going to a large coffee table book one would come to expect, however the storyline that goes along with it makes it well worth the size and price. I have it prominently displayed in my living room awaiting any prying eyes that might dare to take a peek.