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5.0 out of 5 stars
Diverse and wide-ranging nudes, Jun 11 2002
...Despite having fewer big names, the book does not fall short with regard to the incredible breadth and variety of nude female subjects, photographic styles, and historical periods (1850 to present day). The female subjects are young and old, beautiful and grotesque, fat and skinny, white, black, and Asian. And there's at least one celebrity (Marilyn Monroe). The images can be called realistic or surreal, pictorialistic or artistic, hard-core or soft-core, experimental or intentional, clever or lucky, and serious or playful. I have to give Mr. Braham a lot of credit for bringing all this together in one book. The following are some of my favorite and not-so-favorite nudes in the book: Eve Arnold was the first female photographer to work for Magnum, a prominent photo agency. She was a celebrity photographer and is best known for her photos of Marilyn Monroe. Her color photo shows Marilyn sitting on a chair with her nude back facing the camera and a profile of her face. Nick Clements' "Shaved Woman" is perhaps the book's most eye-popping (or obscene) picture. It is a stark and graphic close-up of a standing woman's clean-shaven genitals in full color. Larry Fink shows a chest shot of a woman squeezing her left breast to spew out a few streams of breast milk into the air. Some of it apparently has been collected in a small jar which she holds in her hand. David M. Glover's black-and-white photo titled "Joy" is of a huge, mountainous, nude woman looking up with joy with both arms reaching up toward the sky. Nadav Kander's "Irma" is a blunt and too-real frontal portrait of an elderly, nude woman. Her breasts are drooping, and her face is deeply wrinkled along with the rest of her body. It's a hair-raising picture which shows how the human body can age. I was appalled by the deep wrinkles on the body other than the face and arms. Even my grandmother (90+ years old) was not that wrinkled other than on the face and arms. Patrick Lichfield's "Checkered Cab" is a shot of an attractive, topless woman in a yellow, checkered taxi. She's framed by the car's window. Many of my friends liked this picture. Paul Murphy is another artist who photographed an elderly woman, 70 years old perhaps. She's posed like a confident, glamour model with her head thrown back and chin up while her nude chest juts forward. Her wrinkled face and neck contrast well with her smooth chest. Bob Norris created a dreamy, soft, and light-colored portrait titled "Daria." It's a head and chest shot of an attractive, blue-eye blond woman. He painted the model's skin with white paint and used 8x10 in. Polaroid film. Erwin Olaf shows a repulsive-looking old woman (looks like an elderly Boy George when he was in Culture Club) holding a large fish to her stomach and chest. Really gross. Philbert Ono. My black-and-white photo is called "Century Celebration." It's a nude Japanese woman jumping up in the photo studio with a white background. I... Paul Torcello's "Sachi Bag" is a very clever, digitally-altered advertising photograph of a nude, mannequin-like woman whose buttocks were digitally replaced with the smooth, curving side of a brand-name bag which perfectly fit the contours of her derriere. Jan Zwart's "Two Women" is one of the most intriguing and thought-provoking images in the book. It shows two women standing against a wall. One woman is a Muslim from Morocco and she is completely covered in black clothing except for her eyes and eyebrows. The other woman is a Westerner who is totally nude except for her eyes and eyebrows which are covered by a black blindfold. The obvious contrast is striking and a commentary of two different cultures. I was a little disappointed that only one Japanese photographer (Nobuyoshi Araki) was included, and his contribution was quite tame. It's just a nude Japanese woman sitting on the floor with her back leaning against the wall next to a bedroom. It would've been great to see a few more Japanese photographers. (I'm actually a Japanese-American so I don't count as a Japanese photographer.)
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