Natural Beauties [Hardcover]

All fans of the DOMAI website and their "simple" style of nude photography will absolutely love this book. In fact, anyone who enjoys naturally beautiful models posing completely nude in equally unpretentious settings will find something to rave about here. 38 different girls are featured, each so radiant they could easily have been the central star of this publication with all 368 pages devoted to just them. But we are totally overwhelmed by the depth of material presented here from such famed photographers as Sergey Babneko, Petter Hegre, Martin Krake, Alexander Feodorov, Ale Zhukov, Igor Amirov, Oleg, Ponochovny, Dmitiri Kuleshov, Andrey Razin, Sergey Goncharov, Jaromir Plesko, Mikhail Pogorelov, and even the publisher, Eolake Stobblehouse.

For those interested in the philosophical approach to the nude that Stobblehouse champions at his site, www. domai.com, I strongly urge all to seek out that website and read more there. But, in a nutshell, it's about showcasing the natural beauty of the model without any added distractions - no fancy hairstyles or makeup, no elaborate photosets, no clothing, and even the photography itself is arranged to showcase the beauty of the girl and not the technical mastery of the photographer. But make no mistake, these are pictures of perfection, and as famed photographer Craig Morey says in the book "..the bodies and faces are perfect, and the world is a better place while I'm looking at these beautiful women."

This is a large, fabulous, thrilling collection of nude photography. It's difficult to see how anyone who is a fan of this genre will not be absolutely and serenely flabbergasted with this marvelous book.

The photos are of excellent quality and there are certainly plenty of photographs in this book. A wide range of models and photographers are showcased and for a rather small in size (dimensions) book, it makes up for it in the number of pages. The quibble I have with the book is that there is a certain repetition in the posing of the beautiful models, and each model is not given the same number of shots. Each model seemed to be in a single theme setting; all on the beach, or all among trees, among grasses, etc. Some of the models get much more space than others. Only one set of photographs is by Stobblehouse himself. I was surprised to find myself thinking repetition when viewing the book, but that is what I felt. I wanted to see more from some, and less from others. That is what stops me from giving it five stars. The poses are all taken outside, and show an excellent use of light and shadow.

I'm going to have to hammer this one: before I started typing I read the sales ranking and it just made me more angry.

OK: First thing. How can this book be so popular? Something is suspicious here, and I'm first talking about totally non-subjective matters. This is a book of images from the DOMAI website, correct? OK, that is a very nice website. It's beautiful and the images there are beautifully presented. And you can go there and join the site and see all (or most) of these photos presented in beautiful, very large (3000pixel?) format that if you MUST have printed, you can print yourself and hang on a wall. SO WHY would any sane person instead buy a book of those same photos that costs nearly twice as much as a site membership and that is absolutely ))) TINY ((( in dimensions?? Understand what I'm saying people, the photos in this book are presented in generally 4x6 inch format (think: prints from Walgreens). Many are much smaller than that. Yes, there are a few that are slightly bigger, but in a book that is less than 8 inch high (huh?!?), the limits are serious. Add to that, the print quality: There is often a color shift to green in the printing (at least in my copy) and the highlights are frequently blown out. Poor printing! Honestly, this book is pretty tragic. So, as I asked, what sane person would buy it? Well, I did, based on the Amazon Sales Ranking and all these "5 Star" ratings from people here. I cannot understand this one at all. My guess would have to be that DOMAI, the site, has asked or coerced some select site members to write nice reviews. I'm being very straight here: I like the DOMAI site very much, but this book is just plain awful and that's on the technical merits alone.

On the subjective.. though 20 odd photographers have contributed, I challenge you to tell one's work from another. Impossible. The editor obviously likes ONE specific type of photograph and only that one, because that's what's in this collection again, and again, and again.. about 400 times! And that "one" photograph is a simple snapshot of a very thin, young girl around 18 years old without any make-up or clothing standing outside in a natural environment. Nice, but after 400 times? Monotonous, IMHO.

But that's subjective and everyone's taste is different. Maybe 400 nearly identical and poorly printed snapshots are your thing and you'll love this book. But for me, the technical failings alone are enough to kill it before I have a chance to notice the monotony. If 0 stars were available, that's what I'd give it.

DBAX