Customer Reviews

X-Ray

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Francois Nars' first collection of portraits is a fascinating "read"(there's only a few pages of text). The images, the fantasy, the creative process are what is important.

Nars photographs his subjects simply, against a white background in most cases, although some have more extensive set work. The emphasis is on the face and of course, the makeup. The makeup is, in a word, stunning. Nars mixes wild and fanciful theatrical makeup with more subdued, practical makeup. Understandably, the wild makeup makes a deeper impression, but the range of the makeup highlights Nars' skill. My particular favorites are Shalom Harlow as Snow White(though I've seen a less graphic version of the portrait where's she's simply showing her garter, not her panties), Susan Sarandon looking stunning in wearable, pretty makeup, and the picture of a performance artist in full-body makeup with wild wig and face. There is full frontal nudity in this book, but it is not portrayed in a sexual way. In fact, if anything, many of the subjects who are fully clothed are more sexual than the nude ones.

It's hard to judge Nars' caliber as a photographer. Are the photos stunning, or is it simply what the pictures are of that makes them so intriguing? It's a fine line, but the pictures are playful, attractive, and well thought out. The subjects are famous people, many presented in a new and different way then we've seen them before. I definitely would advise people to check it out.

I discovered Francois Nar's book, X-Ray, two days ago, and I cannot stop thinking about it. There are really no in-between's with this book: you love it or you don't. In photography, I especially love good portraiture, and since, have liked portraits done in black-and-white. In X-Ray, Nars combines all my favorite loves: fashion, make-up, and personality-- in wonderful, vibrant COLOR!! A particular eye can appreciate the sequence of monographs, one by one: the full-face photo of Cindy Crawford au naturel! Every portrait is a surprise...And to think that Nars did the styling, make-up, and picture-taking himself makes this book all the more precious. This book can show us how big and small this world is, our differences and preferences and similarities. How we each have different sides to our personality, some more obvious than others.

This is resoundingly the photography book of the millennium...Nars is able to capture the fantasies and characters we all have hidden within us through an extraordinary variety of photos. As I viewed the book I felt that I was being transported to an entirely different planet...one, I might add, that I would like to visit. All inhibition has been set aside so that we may (as an audience) participate in a festival of photos which are clearly the magic of Francois Nars. This book deserves nothing less than to be displayed on every coffee table...then we'll see who (or what) becomes the life of the party!

Francois Nars' new book is superbly done. It is an exciting compilation of shocking and sedated images that bring the viewer into the depths of the mind of their maker. Nars introduces us to an alternate universe, where nothing is as it once was...the ordinary becomes extraordinary and the masks of what we have come to accept as fact are lifted. Such is the image of Rupaul, devoid of make up and glamour...in utterly stark simplicity and totally foreign to anything we have known him to be. This book is filled with famous faces and names, but each one has been changed to fit a different scope. The book itself is a conversation piece, a thing to be explored and revisited with the expectation of finding something new each time. It does not try to fool its viewers with flash and fancy, but rather acts as a tool to show us that things are not always as they seem.

This book is great. The makeup is great the photography is great and the book printing is great. Its all pictures and no writing (only like a page) and there are something like 300 photographs from all different stlyes and all different people. Some full nudity but mostly the classic beast that the Europeans dont mind showing in advertisements. I loved this book. Highly recommended.

Great work by Francois Nars one of the worlds greatest Make up Artists!
Awesome collection of his work!
Great Pictures you just wanna tear them out and hang them on the wall!

As a lover of photography, I found this book to be something worth its weight in gold. Francois Nars has managed to seize hold of the readers mind and take us into a world of his making. Famous faces, both glamourous and ugly come together in a splendid gathering of provocative images that titillate the mind. Nars has somehow managed to create sites that both shock and please the eyes with their revealing as well as concealing nature. This is not a book about Nars' cosmetics, as some might expect, but rather about the imagination and creativity of Francois Nars, the artist. It is not meant to be all brightness and beauty; it is a meeting of opposite forces, dark and light, pretty and ugly. I thoroughly enjoyed it and still, after having gone through the pages many times, find this book to be as exciting to read as I did the first time I picked it up.

The makeup in this book is great, the book is also great, the only thing I dont like is as a photography who does beauty photography I see no change in camera angle. All pictures are shot from one position. But all and all it is an amazing book.

Amazing,unik, excellent,arty,funny,beatiful......

After looking at the amazing photographs in X-Ray, I wanted more, the book is awesome and the pictures vary vastly from page to page. I have two words for you Pure Talent!