Naked Men: Pioneering Male Nudes 1935-1955

by David Leddick

Book Overview

The male nude has been a staple of art since the Greeks graced their public buildings with the glorified forms of gods and heroes. Renaissance artists didn't hesitate to display the male form,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 078930080X
• ISBN13: 9780789300805
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Universe
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Much Better as a Printed Product Than the Sequel to This Book Turned out To Be

This book truly is fascinating. The b&w photos are reproduced well and, for the most part, are as interesting visually (beautiful and arousing) as they are historically important. Seeing those involved with these photos, as they looked at the time and then years later is quite striking, something unusual that I greatly appreciate. Some who initially have encountered the sequel to the book, namely "Naked Men Too", rather than the first of the volumes, may fear that tbe book about the "pioneers" may turn out to be difficult to read. The text of that sequel is printed in such small and faint print that it is quite a challenge to get through it. That is a pity, because the texts that are along with the photos are so well researched and interesting to read in the sequel, just as in ths, the first volume. It is unusual to cover comprehensively the details of a model's life and accomplishments in this manner, unless he happens also to be a public celebrity in some other way, such as in a book featuring in the course of it a famous (and exceptionally beautiful) actor or other performer photographed "in the buff". The famously handsome and visibly quite athletic male star of ballet and modern dance, Roberto Bolle, is an example of that. So is the younger ballet dancer, Sergei Polunin, who has been photographed totally undressed or very nearly so to a lesser extent (as of 2021, though he clearly is on a path of becoming bolder about this matter) in such books and videos, rather than so frequently bereft of costume or of other clothing as Bolle has been so far. (Neither of these illustrious dancers, by the way, is mentioned in the two volumes of "Naked Men"; citing them is only to mention examples, to help younger readers who may not be aware of such male celebrities of the past who are cited therein, who embody similar career tendencies across time regarding nude posing.) There are some nude photos here and there of elegantly sleek and appealing young Polunin among his other camera shots in various photo-books, DVDs, or articles about Polunin. In such publications, photos of celebrity models are engulfed, with the photos or prefatory to them, in ample writing about them as men and stars, in their personal lives and in their main areas of endeavour, something much rarer in the case of models who have not yet attained such fame. Returning to the photographic work at hand, in the initial volume of "Naked Men", while the print is smaller than I would have preferred, it succeeds in being fairly manageable to read. In the sequel, by contrast, the print is so small and so very faint, that it is truly a frustration to try to cope with it. As much as I longed to read the sequel's texts found there with the photos in their entirety, I had to abandon the effort; the print was simply too dim for my ageing eyes to cope with it. The sequel's photos, however, are as interesting and well chosen as ever. So, fear not, "Naked Men: Pioneering Male Nudes" is a joy to read as well as to enjoy for the wonderful photos. Just pause a bit, though, to consider whether you really want to order the sequel to it as well. If it is the photos alone that attract your interest, there is no problem, but as to the printed text, that is a beast of a matter to cope with, even with a magnifying glass in hand.

The Men Who Bared It First-- From 1935 to 1955

Great book with an artistic assortment of classic male nudes. What makes this one different than your typical book of vintage nudes? This book combines stories and updated photographs of the men who did it first. Quite a wonderful and fascinating book-- as well as a trip down memory lane. Many full page portraits-- a great coffee table book.