B. Martin Pedersen

Undoubtedly, the best book that I own on nude photography, and probably one of the best I have ever seen.
There is a special relationship between light, shadow and the human form which seems to have infinite possibilities.

The large format of the book, lends itself so much to the need to properly display these beautiful photographs in a scale fitting to be fully appreciated, that my only small criticism is the use of white space. Although I love white space, and there is no doubt that it does work very well here, it is a pity that virtually every full page photograph in the collection is reduced by half, if taking into account the available space on offer; with a mere handful making use of the actual size of the book itself. But I guess that was a creative choice, and you have to accept it.

I have discovered many photographers I hadn't come across before:

Dennis Manarchy's photography showcasing the muscular black oiled skin of his male subjects striking classic Powerful poses, such as 'Trust' and 'Box' on pages 90 and 91 with their faceless anonymity reminded me so much of the Seal II album cover that I tried to find out if they were by the same photographer, but was unable to confirm this.

Other artists that I liked were:

Sanders Nicolson (pages 76 & 77): again focusing on black skinned models (female this time) in heavy (almost prosthetic), certainly I would describe it as special effects make-up. Sometimes looking like dust or sand blown from the desert sticking to the models skin, with what appears to be a type of black raffia knotted around their bodies, or at other times dried caked on mud that has cracked echoing a parched dry arid landscape. Talk about using your models like a canvas!

Ron Baxter Smith (page 185) for the use of light and shadow cast through heavy mesh onto human skin.

It's amazing how some if the photograph have the raw naked power to conjure up emotions and link to images from the individual spectators own mind. Take Jorg Hieber (page 138), and the excruciating position of the model's shoulders looking almost disarticulated, resembling to my mind the fabled Viking execution of the Blood Eagle. Horrific.
Some of these bodies are like watching clouds form into familiar shapes. It's a book I will look to in future for inspiration again and again.

On a lighter note; one other use for this book could be used as a drinking game. Take a sip from your favourite alcoholic beverage each time you fall on a page where the photographer has draped his nude subject in gauze! I appreciate that there are whole books dedicated to that (The Naked and the Veiled: The Photographic Nudes of Erwin Blumenfeld) but where is the fun in that! ;)

Either way, there is a lot of very, very creative stuff in here.… (mere)