Customer Reviews

Roy Stuart: Volume III

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

 

 

For Roy Stuart there are no boundaries when it comes to sex and beauty. In his world everyone and every situation provides the opportunity to explore some aspect of the most erotic manifestations of sexuality.

Stuart thrusts voyeurism into a respectable spotlight. Foot fetishism and bondage are as common as the missionary position and most important, no one is a victim in Stuart's erotic universe. Women are in control, and are in his sexy "photo-stories" because they want to be.

Continuing to break down the boundaries of sexual politics with his provocative photography, Roy Stuart's most recent work is more explicit than ever. With the groundwork laid in Volumes I and II, Stuart ventures further into the ambivalent relationship between reality and illusion, using role-play to challenge conventional ideas of sexuality. More daring, more subversive, Volume III features Stuart's most focused work to date.

Roy Stuart's latest subjects include older women, who, in their non-conformity to orthodox standards of beauty, force viewers re-evaluate their personal definition of what constitutes an appropriate "sex object." Does western culture brainwash us into accepting traditional sexual roles, wherein women must be young and beautiful and men must be handsome and dominant? Forget what society has taught you about power roles, desirability, and body image. Stuart depicts a world where these barriers are abolished and women share the same sexual license as men.

This is a great book. The third volume of Roy Stuart's fetish photography (which never really gets too heavy, thankfully) is his most explicit yet. He keeps pushing the boundaries with each new volume, but his sexual iconoclasm comes across as a bit shallow and self-justifying when faced with the amount of erotic material freely available on the internet. The poetry extracts are ugly, but the women are beautiful. Incredibly so. Stuart has a fine eye for young women, and they're here in all shapes and sizes (mostly tall for obvious reasons). Some of these photographs reek of pure, unshamed sexual satisfaction for both sexes, and that's a pretty healthy outlook. Veers into some strange territory sometimes, but hey, these wacky sexual iconoclast photographers documenting the young women of Paris, what'cha gonna do with 'em?

This'll put a damned smile at the unfettered beauty on display. If not, you need your damned eyes tested.

I disagree entirely with the other reviewer's comment that if you're a fan of Leg Show you'll find this boring. I get Leg Show exclusively for Roy Stuart's work and this 240 page book was anything but a letdown. Stuart is unique in what he does, challenging the viewer's notions about sexuality, gender, beauty, fantasy, and power. The women he photographs have -- like the settings he designs for them -- a sexually frazzled quality that makes one never want to look again at another Penthouse layout. If women want to know what men really fantasize about, look at Roy Stuart's photography. And, yes, many of the photos here have been seen before in Leg Show, but there are many that I've not seen.

if you are a fan of Leg Show Magazine then this book will be pretty boring for you. most of the pictures are the same that appeared in that magazine. i had expected to see fresh photo's or even some too risky for the periodical. Instead we are treated to some of the same photographs.

overall i give it 3 stars. good if you like this sort of stuff but old hat if you have regullarly read leg show.

i was looking for cool erotic photography with this book. not necessarily all clean and pristine, in fact something edgy would have been welcome but it's just nudity and sex. the quality of the pictures is fine, the colors are fine the models are fine. but it is directed at men's magazine readers rather than art audience i think. i guess that was my bad. the two reviews quoted on the book cover are not surprisingly from Penthouse and Playboy, and i think that describes the book well. both are fine magazines for the type of material that they present, but quite dull when you browse page after page.

it took me some time to get my mind around this book, on one hand, top playboy style photos, the usual very posed with artaficial looks models involved in a pretty ordinery (for erotic photography scenes) and on the other hend, photos that looks almost randomly taken, photos of woman showing off their panties by accident or involved in real live scene (such as peeing in a public place and so on) it felt to me as if the level of subjects (not technicly, which is all superb by the way) and model's very uneven.

then after trying to solve this anigma for a while, i notice that this was the main strangth of the book, it give a very full and deep range of approaches regurding women's body and women's sexuality. it doesn't escape mainstream or edgy ways of looking at it.

unlike a lot of very cold fetish art, this book holds true admiration and fasination of women of all zises and ages (most of them are slim conventinaly beautiful young models, but some of them aren't) and there's a feel of true intimacy and realizm in a lot of those photo.
it's very immpressive both in it's cover and zise and it's make a somwhat less ocnventional coffee table book, i reccomand it strongly