Customer Reviews

See Me Feel Me

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

 

 

I'm happy to write a review of this book, although one word could do it: SPECTACULAR.

This book has a thing or two in common with my choice for 2005's best nude picture book, Guido Argentini's "Private Rooms". Similarities are: sense of composition, location, lighting, and models. A couple of the models appear in both books. Both books are audacious gatherings of the most beautiful girls you'll find around. They diverge where they take similar girls into similar locations, and both shoot rich color pictures loaded up with natural light, but they interpret the scene differently. Argentini grabs the scene with a more fashion-photographer edge, Murrian molds it as a classical artist. His version is more idealized, romanticized, stylized. That's what's so powerful about this book! So many "artistic nude" picture books that are published these days are so plain and styleless. But this work is so stylized and so well done technically, that it is just dazzling. I own a whole lot of photo books, and have reviewed many of them on Amazon. I think I'm pretty knowledgeable about this subject. And I would say this book is not just the best nude photo book of 2006, it's one of the best ever done (same thing I said about the Argentini book).

The production quality of this book is very good. The paper and printing are excellent. It is big, but not as big as "Private Rooms". But then, it costs half as much so that's fair. If SEE ME FEEL ME is an indication of the quality of his work and his skills, then Murrian is definitely one to watch for. For certain, one of my favorites now.

Now, I hate to "review a review", but must mention one of the others here, which gave this book 1 Star. Maybe this is a personal enemy of the author, because the statements are nonsense. I have this book right in front of me as I type: While there are some "soft-focus" pictures in this book, it must be at a maximum 10-15% of the total pic-count, and there is no evidence of any "vaseline smears"- this ain't 1970 buddy!! The soft-focus shots look like well done Photoshop-ing to make them painting-like. And as for the "cliched art titles", the title that reviewer mentions refers to the girl on the cover of the book: And well... Look at her! She might very well be "The Most Beautiful Face in the World"! She's gorgeous!

We have too much of a "Fast-Food Culture" in this country. So something that reaches for a bit more sophistication is often scoffed at by people who simply "don't get it". This book is meant to be languidly flipped through while sipping a fine Cognac and relaxing in front of a fireplace. Class, beauty, and sophistication from cover to cover.

I'm very pleased to have it in my collection.

DBAX

This is an outstanding collection of photos. Murrian presents about 20 individual models, plus two pairs, over the course of 250 pages. The models are all young women, at that blossoming age that fascinates so many artists. In this format, Murrian gets to spend some time on each model, showing her different moods and features. Some pictures (e.g., pp.40,83) are simple tributes to youthful beauty. Other pictures are more about the woman's strength (p.135) or grace (p.186). A few pictures build abstract images from utterly literal rendering of figure (pp.27,116). Others depict fragility (p.131) or some more ambiguous mood (p.162). None of the pictures are erotic, except as an undertone. Oddly, the one I found most suggestive wasn't a figure study at all, but a portait showing only the model's face (p.119) - something in it is direct and challenging, and it pointedly interacts with the viewer.

This collection is a dramatic improvement over Murrian's earlier book, "Reanna's Diaries." These pictures offer more different ways of seeing the models and of capturing their images, where RD tended to impose the same look onto every picture and every young woman.

I recommend this to anyone passionate about women's beauty. This captures just one type of beauty at one time of a woman's life, but captures it well.

//wiredweird

Better than any other erotic photographer I know, Richard Murrian is able to capture the intense beauty a girl emanates when she is on the verge of entering womanhood. His first book, Reanna's Diaries, was already quite convincing in this respect, but See Me Feel Me removes any remaining doubts.

See Me Feel Me is a collection of 275 photographs of twenty beautiful, mostly teen-age girls. The quality of the prints is high and the book has a beautiful design. The photos are arranged by model and each series has a well-chosen title. The arrangement by model turns out to be very suitable to bring out the central message of Murrian's work: that the transition from girl to woman is not abrupt but a continuum. Thus, one photograph from the series brings the girl the model still is into focus; in the next, you get a glimpse of the woman she will become.

The types of photographs range from portraits to figure studies to, what I would be inclined to call, still-lifes. In general, the style in See Me Feel Me is less `soft' and dream-like than in Reanna's Diaries, but that doesn't mean that the photos are any less sensual. On the contrary, the excellent lighting, the increased level of nudity and the seductive poses make the images even more erotic.

No-one interested in the special beauty displayed by women in their years of becoming can afford to miss this book.

Fantastic new models presented here by Richard Murrian, particularly cover-girls Monika and Olya. His trademark lighting, attention to detail and, most importantly, incredible young models, shine through on every page. Some may question why he waited 2 years to do the follow up to Reanna's Diaries, but the answer is apparent once you turn the first page.

In the internet age where a photographer's work is too often marketed in terms of kilobytes rather than killer photos, Richard Murrian has produced a collection of exquisite and hand-crafted photographs rarely found in the genre. You can see (and feel) the care that has gone into every page, both while shooting the models and in the preparation of the images that comprise this very impressive book.

This is Murrian's 2nd Book. This new work seems more mature, better seasoned, and aesthetically speaking, more muscular. There is still a connecting thread to that ecstasy-flavored dream that was Reanna's Diaries, but this new material goes way beyond the psychic territory covered there. Richard shares with us here a much wider and vastly deeper perspective of what he finds intriguing and beautiful about women. And he does so with what seems to be a burgeoning sense of confidence. More relaxed and perhaps less forced, this new work is also more commanding. And despite the fact that there is an overall feeling of ease and self-assurance here, there are occasional instances of tension, almost as if his inner-artist is playing some type of spiritual tug-o-war. For example, the deeply sensual portrait study of "Jana" stands in stark contrast to the more serene tone of "Favorite Flower"; and the infectious energy of "The Beach Dancer" alights in comparison to the more traditional figure studies presented throughout. But it's the gorgeous masterpieces, sequined throughout the book, that bring everything together and construct the sensory Étouffée that make this such a compelling body of work. A personal favorite is "Requim". This photograph is a virtual symphony of texture, color, and form. The interplay between the subject's reclining shape and the sheer, star-covered shroud that she's draped across her naked body is absolutely dazzling. And the compositional magnificence of the larger-than-life "L'aube Nue" make this book a worthy collector's item all by itself. This image could grace the wall of any museum.

Photos run from ho-hum to pretty darn good, except for the number of them spread across two pages with that darn crease in the middle.

i was very disappointed in this selection and in fact threw it in the recycling bin. the photography and printing are boring -- in the vaseline smear, warm lighting, bedroom ambiance of penthouse pet layouts. the poses are neither dramatic, erotic nor imaginative and actually convey a sense of routine or boredom. models are grouped into "chapters" with laughably cliched "art" titles (such as "the most beautiful face in the world"). the book production values are excellent and the eastern european models are lovely but the photographer does more posing than the models.