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Locker Room Nudes: Dieux de Stade The French National Rugby Team

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Every one of those extraordinarily beautiful and lavishly produced calendars and videodiscs that has come out year by year of photography, of supremely fine calibre, of the rugby players who are members of the team, Dieux du Stade, Paris, and of their "guests", i.e. other rugby players from teams all over the world, has become a classic of the nude and nearly-nude male body; together these iconographic items in print and moving image form form a monumental addition to the two genres of athletic and nude male portraiture. However, this book, drawing upon the wealth of photos and stills from the videos, perhaps inlucding yet other images as well of the same and perhaps other men, surpasses even previous products.

This book is gorgeous; it is overwhelming; it is an exalted tribute to the male body and to the god-like figure of the professional athlete. There is something almost supernatural at times in the supernal beauty and naturalness, as Rousseau captures them for immortality, of these varied and magnificent men that makes one tremble, not just with sexual arousal (but that, too, and how!), but with wonder at the sheer grace, strength, and allure of the male human form and of the photographer's art. Even the photos of these players' faces are full of a sensibility, individual expressiveness, and beauty that adds to one's appreciation of the photos of their bodies.

Judging from the copyrights, which are given up to 2007, well in the future at the time of the book's publication, one presumes that there are images and probably players, too, not yet included in the videodiscss and calendars that have come out to date.

This is a lavish book and more than well worth its price, a fine monographic tribute to the photographer, Francois Rousseau, as well as to such men who, astoundingly, have been permitting themselves to be photographed so intimately. There is little written text, so whether the buyer is English- or French-speaking (or of any other language), the book will be a worthwhile purchase for truly anyone, anywhere in the world. Women and gay men will thrill at these photos, but so will lovers more generally of the nude in art of Rousseau's level as he has attained it with the camera!