Underworld [Hardcover]

Kelly Klein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 21, 1995

154 photographs

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Anne Rice writes the introduction to this excellent, large-format collection of emotionally charged, sometimes kinky photos of partially clad people. The title puns on the word underwear and sexy, secret lives. No wonder it attracted Anne Rice's intelligent attention--that and the fact that author Kelly Klein is donating all her proceeds to the CFDA Foundation Fund for AIDS.

"The camera empowers you to be intimate with the lens, even abandoned, in a way that may not be possible with another human," Rice muses. "This book is a monument to our freedom, not only to express ourselves but to want more than we are allowed. The camera is the safest vehicle for this excess."

Klein has superb taste in shutterbugs: Brassai, Man Ray, David Salle, Sally Mann, David Hockney, Cindy Sherman, and anonymous snappers of eye-grabbing scenes. The juxtapositions are good: Christy Turlington perfectly complements a 1930 Lartigue model; a Bruce Weber tableau matches a 1945 Playtex ad. You see a side of the doomed model Gia here in curlers that even the tell-all bio Thing of Beauty can't tell you about.

This is a good book done for a good cause. --Tim Appelo

From the Inside Flap

154 photographs

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Knopf; 1st edition (November 21, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679435794
• ISBN-13: 978-0679435792
• Product Dimensions: 13.6 x 10.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,298,541 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting and capivating look at underwear,and body., May 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Underworld (Hardcover)

Photographs taken by old masters of photography,new masters,and amatuer photographers make underworld complete. This book is as safe as you can get to another person in their underwear or lack of without the risks we face,today. Very sexy,innocent,and liberating! Bravo,Kelly...

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars sex appeal is in what isn't seen, September 17, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Underworld (Hardcover)

This classy collection of photographs (most of them black-and-white) from the famous, infamous and anonymous covers 100 years of shutterbuggery of the least public aspect of fashion--underwear. She, he, straight, gay, in between--this book will be appreciated by all connoiseurs of photography, fashion, and the art of the book. Underworld is a loving appreciation of the human form with often whimsical arrangements (the Maidenfrom center spread is a masterful touch) featuring the work of Andre Kertez, Steven Meisel, Man Ray, Robert Mapplethorpe, Brassai, Robert Doisneau, Imogen Cunningham, Cindy Sherman, and 70+ other surveyors of the human landscape.

A great gift for newlyweds or that special someone in your life.

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice book, November 2, 2011

By 

N. N. Paljevic (New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Underworld (Hardcover)

It's not what I expected, I was hoping to see more vintage pictures but there are very few of those in the book but it makes a very adult orientated table book.