Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Good Overview..., December 21, 2000
I thought this new book of male nude photography featuring 90 of the best photographers of today and the past was a good overview of the history of male nude photography. It offers a biography of each photographer and an analysis of each photograph which I thought was very helpful. There were many photographer's I had no knowledge of before. It's sort of a reference book you can turn to and find out about your favorite photographer, and learn a little bit about his or her work and career. Men and women are both represented in this book, which is unusual in male nude photography books, usually only men are represented. If I had one problem with this book it's the fact that only one photograph for each photographer is shown. I wish there had been at least two examples or more. However, I think the book would have been too big, if more than one image was presented and in addition 90 photographer's is a large number to showcase in one volume. Maybe a Volume 1 & Volume II would have helped.Philip Braham did a great job in putting together this very informative book, and I enjoyed it. It's certainly a good source of information on male nude photography to have in your collection, and to display on that coffee-table.
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23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good photo selection, extremely high quality, November 18, 2000
This is a gorgeous book! Anyone who's not ashamed of the human body would be proud to have this one on their coffee table -- or in their local library.Many serious books about the male nude reproduce the same old, same old, same old pictures that everyone else has printed. This book concentrates on "90 of the world's greatest photographers" and more than half of the time showcases a photo quite different from what we're used to from each of them. Better yet, this is not just a "pretty-boy" book. There are, of course, plenty of tight bods and young faces. But a much wider selection of male subjects is presented -- a couple of them might even be called "trolls" -- ouch! However, this variety challenges our culture's commercial sale of male beauty and underscores the fact that this is a serious artistic book with no inhibitions -- not just an attempt to present centerfolds as art. (Not that there's anything wrong with that!) Each photographer receives basically the same exposure: A page on the left summarizing his or her work and career, and a page on the right showcasing one photo. (That's right -- with few exceptions, everyone gets just ONE image! And both men and women photographers are represented in abundance.) Editor Philip Braham deftly adds a brief artistic analysis of each photo.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent addition to any coffee-table or bookshelf., October 27, 2001
This sumptuously produced volume exudes quality from the thickness of the dust-jacket, to the high-gloss paper used throughout and of course to the selection of the images used.
The author has put together a selection of photographs, one from each photographer, representing a century of differing styles used to present the male form in photographs. There are some sublimely beautiful images to be seen in this collection, many not seen in books before.Each plate is accompanied by some details of the photographer, the model and the meaning of each portrayal. In the index at the rear, each photographer is catalogued, and there is a contact e-mail or web address as appropriate. This clearly gives the reader the opportunity to follow-up any artists of particular interest. A brilliant book to occupy a place of merit on anyone's coffee-table. Be warned, this book is available with a different title in the UK where it is called "Naked Male"
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