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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Essential for the collector of gay artistic self-expression,
By farang@hk.super.net (Hong Kong, S.A.R., P.R.C.) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Taormina: Wilhelm Von Gloeden (Paperback)
A contemporary of the greats (Oscar Wilde, poets, the avante guarde of his generation), the Baron was an unabashed lover of the male nude. Obviously very persuasive, he was well-loved by his models. Nazi criminals later destroyed much of his work, but what remains is air and light to us all. Unabashedly, he was a living example of self-esteem, positive body image, and love of art for itself. Many today pay thousands to achieve the certainty of self-realization he so efortlessly showed in each and every print. Their historical value alone is unmeasurable, as the plates that each image was made from is unique and irreplaceable. The Nazi hammers on the glass plates horrifies me as the burning of the libraries of Alexandria must have others at that time. Buy this book! Show it proudly!
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Don't judge a book by its cover,
By
This review is from: Taormina: Wilhelm Von Gloeden (Paperback)
Don't judge a book by its cover. To begin with, for the fact that the portrait on the cover was neither shot by Wilhelm von Gloeden, but by his cousin, Wilhelm von Pluschow, nor has anything to do with TAORMINA, but either with Rome or Naples, where Pluschow lived, as anyone aquainted with Pluschow's work will immediatly recognise.Ditto for many, if not most, of the pix in this book, which are not by Gloeden and were not shot in Taormina. This explain the coarse side of some of these pictures that other reviewers noticed: this would be unusual for Gloeden indeed, however these pix are not his, but mostly by Vincenzo Galdi (Pluschow's aide), who ended his career in 1907 after being condemned for *obscene* photographs. Q.E.D. In sum, the editors made a total mess, concerning attributions. They decided that if it looks Italian, and it is at least one century old, then it is Gloeden. This said, the book is a nice object, printed in colours (of course the pix themselves are black and white), oversize, displaying for the first time scores of pictures never seen before. Hence my 4 stars, the mess notwithstanding. However the book does *not* deal with Gloeden and Taormina (alone), but rather with different kinds of pictures (from art to softporn) of the male nude from Italy between 1880 and 1920. If you look for the real thing, I mean Gloeden himself, then go for other editions (there are plenty of them, most of them much cheaper).
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Work of an Important Photographer/Historian,
By Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (TOP 50 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Taormina: Wilhelm Von Gloeden (Paperback)
For over a century the art photographs of Wilhelm von Gloeden (1856 - 1931) have been admired and collected, maligned and banned, and have generally been a landmark in the study of the male nude in art. This small (in size) volume of the artist's photographs represent all the photos taken in Taormina, Sicily, a near mythical spot where artsits have flocked for many years. von Gloeden originally moved to Taormina on physician's orders, leaving his homeland of Prussia and his successful career as an actor for the warmer, healthier climes of Sicily. While there he gradually converted his home into a backdrop where he could use his camera to captured Sicilian youths in staged, classical poses - an homage to Greek and Roman myths and times. The book's Introduction is by Roland Barthes who states 'He mixes nudity and truth, natural phenomena and essence. These little Greek gods have peasants' hands, hardened feet... clearly visible foreskins which are unstylized, that is, not slenderized and tapered: our attention is drawn to the fact that they are clearly uncircumcised. The baron's photographs are at the same time sublime and anatomical.'
This book is graced by a fine preface written by Ulrich Pohlmann, a terse essay which surveys the artist's life and makes a fine argument for the inclusion of von Gloeden's photographs in the museums of the world. And then come the actual jewels - sepia toned moments of classicism using the working class Scilian youths for his Golden Mean models. Many of the photographs very comfortably present full frontal nudity of these young men and with the sexual revolution of the 1960's these photographs abounded in books and calendars in support of the New Male Image. Following his death in 1931, von Gloeden's collection of over three thousand glass plate negatives were left to his long time friend and model Pancrazio Buccini. When Mussolini's Fascists entered Taormina in 1936, the negatives were seized, and Buccini was accused of "keeping pornography." Though Buccini was acquitted, the negatives were not returned until after World War II. Very few of the plates survived; most of what we know of the Baron's work has come to us from the collections of his admirers. But for whatever reason history will alter their use, these beautiful creations are true milestones in figurative photography. It is a joy to have this collection available in its entirety. Grady Harp, May 11
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