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53 of 56 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
RARE AND EXPLICIT VINTAGE PHOTO-EROTICA, January 17, 2001
This review is from: The Rotenberg Collection : Forbidden Erotica (Paperback)
The first TASCHEN volume of Mark Rotenberg's photo collection featured 768 pages of classic 1950s cheesecake. This spicy, new volume, The Rotenberg Collection: FORBIDDEN EROTICA, features wild, hardcore photographs that would make your great-grandmother squirm (and in fact, may have...) How extraordinary to see ladies in bloomers and men sporting handlebar moustaches engaged in the most explicit and arousing acts of lovemaking. There's no question about it - kinky sex and a predilection to capture it on film is not a recent invention! The Rotenberg Collection: FORBIDDEN EROTICA is a unique opportunity to peek behind history's closed doors - and under its rustling skirts.
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52 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Nothing new under the Sun, November 15, 2000
This review is from: The Rotenberg Collection : Forbidden Erotica (Paperback)
This book is little more than a collection of pornographic photographs taken during the earliest years of photography. But that is the true charm of the volume. The demonstration of the fact that there is nothing new under the Sun in sexual matters may seem obvious, but the cultural context of such material adds a fascinating element to otherwise common subject matter. It also demonstrates that whenever a new graphic media is invented, one of the earliest subjects to be portrayed is sure to be sexual activity. The photography is generally of good quality technically, but the differences between these old photos and modern ones are many. First, the women are rarely as thin or muscular as today's standards demand, but may be more feminine for it. Odd as it may seem, the faces of the women are he most interesting part of many of the pictures. Some are feigning ecstacy, some are happily smiling, and others are either bored or annoyed. The backgrounds vary from the outdoors to staged sets that seem as laughable as an old silent film. This is the average person doing what comes naturally and expanding that concept dramatically. Let's face it, before radio and television, the only toys you could be sure everyone had were the ones they were born with. After a time, the reader becomes accustomed to the very different world that he is visiting, and eventually comes to wonder at the uniformity of modern work, and its arbitrary standards. This may not be the most titillating work you've ever seen, but it is fascinating, and deserves a place on your private bookshelf.
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30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Forbidden...yes; erotic...well no,perhaps 'para-erotic.', April 22, 2002
This review is from: The Rotenberg Collection : Forbidden Erotica (Paperback)
"Forbidden Erotica: The Rotenberg Collection, Tashen 2000, ISBN 3-8228-6413-7, is a collection of more than 1000 photographs and a few cartoons with an intense explicit sexual theme that transcends the true nature of erotic or nude imagery and for which I must coin a new term 'para-erotic' to describe these obscene, lewd, hard-core graphic and pornographic images, the majority of which were taken between the 1870's and the 1940's. This indicated pornography began to be popularized shortly after the photographic process was invented and popularized and photo duplication methods were devised. An intimate and informative introduction is given by Laura Mirsky. Additionally she provides an interview with collector Mark Rotenberg who vividly contrasts vintage to that of modern-day pornography. Indeed, some of the photographs are obviously posed, sometimes humorous and if not vaunting then making mockery of present-day decency. The title gives ample warning that The "Rotenberg Collection"0 in all likelihood contains lascivious, vulgar, smutty and barnyard images. So, knowing that, and given the Mirsky introduction, there is justification that such a book should serve some useful literary purpose - one which is not that of exemplary eroticism. Does it belong in a collection of erotic? Well yes...and no. It is not for the coffee table but someplace less obvious, and better in the manner of "sotto voce."
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