Rating:  Summary: Heavenly Nudes in Color Review: Artistic nudes are done in black and white much more often than in color. Rarely are color nudes very artistic. Uwe Ommer's nudes are an exception. He has established himself as one of the world's finest photographers of the nude in color. Only Japanese photo books (hard to find outside of Japan) feature color nudes equal to or better than Uwe Ommer's nudes.Uwe Ommer is a master of lighting. His rather unique lighting style adds to the romantic mystique of the settings of the photos in this book. The colors are often rich, deep, and saturated, and yet the skin tones are beautiful. The images are at the same time highly erotic and very tasteful. Interestingly enough they are less explicit than even Playboy magazine, but at the same time many times more erotic than magazines that show images much more explicit than Playboy. Though very erotic, the women are photographed in a way that is definitely not exploitive. Even many women will approve of the images. The models are extreamly attractive women posed in beautiful romantic settings that display a definite Oriental motif. If you are bored with the typical color nudes you're bombarded with in the mass media, you will probably enjoy this book. If you appriciate the beauty of Asian women you will definitely absolutely love this book.
Rating:  Summary: Uneven Vision and Empty "Essence" Review: As a group, today's photographic artists lack the courage and fire to take the contemporary nude back from the pornographers. Unfortunately, a minority of the portraits in Uwe Ommer's Asian Ladies do anything to aid that worthy cause. Ommer's most consistently interesting photographs are the landscapes and still-lifes that separate the portraits. Although fair designs as a whole, Ommer's compositions lack originality. Worse still, the photographer's lens is too busy pushing clichés to take material note of the individual women who should be its primary work. The introduction compares Ommer to the 1890s author of "L'Asie Amourous" in his appreciation of bittersweet Asian femininity. Yet even the pen of "L'Asie" - who might be compared with a modern-day sex tourist - at least emphasized the individuality of his immediate conquest. Ommer does not. He appears afraid to deal head on with the bodies - and certainly the souls - of his subjects. The work is only superficially sensual and marketing characterizations of it as "erotic" or "transgressing... inhibitions" are absurd. Ommer in fact suppresses spontaneity and emotional (i.e. sensual) honesty. In some photos, the figure's lack of dress is irrelevant to the composition - begging us to question the point of using the nude. Ommer "tastefully" permeates his photos with obscuring affectations of incense, fans, opium and shades of fabric. Asian ladies thereby fall victim to orientalist themes and motifs - facets the photographer at times appears to value more than the women themselves. Although less offensive to conventional morality, such objectification is the same crime accused of the pornographer. The authentic humanity of the subject is exponentially less important than the attempted sale. In this case, Ommer the Tourist is selling a stereotyped "essence" of oriental womanhood - one inherently divorced from the reality of Asian women. This is reinforced by the absence of any model but the young and unflawed. Luckily, Ommer's approach does not stifle every personality that he photographs. Several models manage to break through the lens once context is minimized. Twin compositions half-way through the book each reveal a aquiline bronze figure, accented in a stream of white light but isolated amidst empty shadow. Other photographs portray candid moments - flashing eyes, red-gold fluidity, a hair falls out of place. Subtext makes these few portraits individually valuable to the authentic appreciator of photographic art. However, the collection as a whole is not worth its price.
Rating:  Summary: If you love asian women, you will love this book! Review: Asian Ladies, by Ume Ommer is a wonderful book. Ommer has chosen to show asian women in sensual, delightful way and he succeeds in an outstanding fashion.
Rating:  Summary: Just got it! Review: Far from posing asian women in demeaning or subservient positions, this book contains very tasteful shots. The 3 star rating is due to the lack of "spark" in the images. Both the creative and/or erotic content seems over-whelmingly lacking. The images display a lack of creativity in poses, texture and lighting, and quickly grow repetitive. I'm sure you'll find a few which stand out, but they seem too few and far between. Unless you have an asian fetish, or have trouble finding books you don't own, I would suggest looking elsewhere.
Rating:  Summary: Simply no pizzaz Review: Far from posing asian women in demeaning or subservient positions, this book contains very tasteful shots. The 3 star rating is due to the lack of "spark" in the images. Both the creative and/or erotic content seems over-whelmingly lacking. The images display a lack of creativity in poses, texture and lighting, and quickly grow repetitive. I'm sure you'll find a few which stand out, but they seem too few and far between. Unless you have an asian fetish, or have trouble finding books you don't own, I would suggest looking elsewhere.
Rating:  Summary: Nice beautiful book Review: I thought this was a beautiful book. I admit I like Asian women, and there being so few books of Asian nudes in this country of a tasteful nature, I wanted this book. The beauty of some of the models in this book is breathtaking.
Rating:  Summary: Focus On Asian Women: (The Stereotype) Review: There is a western stereotype that western men have about Asian women. This stereotype cuts across all geographical bounds and zeros in on the mythical, but probably non-existent image of the Asian woman as demure, sexually accomodating, and anti-feminist. In ASIAN LADIES, Owe Ommer has a pictorial on Asian women that feeds into this fantasy. The pictures are erotic, but decidedly not pornographic. They show good-looking Asian women that run the ethnic gamut from Chinese to Korean to Japanese. What this Asian spectrum reveals relates more to exposing the collective psyches of the assumed western reader than it does to the subjects themselves. As I flipped through the pages, I saw many sad-faced ladies who did not seem to know why they were chosen to be included. Any smiles they showed seemed to be nervous ones. Clearly, they were not full of the bouncy joy of life expressions that mark Playboy bunnies. So why would any western male buy this book? Perhaps he, as did I, simply may want to see a pictorial on lovely Asian women who fit nicely into the prepackaged ethnic slots that contain stereotyped images of ladies who needed a paycheck more than they did integity.
Rating:  Summary: Focus On Asian Women: (The Stereotype) Review: There is a western stereotype that western men have about Asian women. This stereotype cuts across all geographical bounds and zeros in on the mythical, but probably non-existent image of the Asian woman as demure, sexually accomodating, and anti-feminist. In ASIAN LADIES, Owe Ommer has a pictorial on Asian women that feeds into this fantasy. The pictures are erotic, but decidedly not pornographic. They show good-looking Asian women that run the ethnic gamut from Chinese to Korean to Japanese. What this Asian spectrum reveals relates more to exposing the collective psyches of the assumed western reader than it does to the subjects themselves. As I flipped through the pages, I saw many sad-faced ladies who did not seem to know why they were chosen to be included. Any smiles they showed seemed to be nervous ones. Clearly, they were not full of the bouncy joy of life expressions that mark Playboy bunnies. So why would any western male buy this book? Perhaps he, as did I, simply may want to see a pictorial on lovely Asian women who fit nicely into the prepackaged ethnic slots that contain stereotyped images of ladies who needed a paycheck more than they did integity.
Rating:  Summary: Beautifully Prepared--But That Is All. Review: This book is an extenceive compiliation of beautiful,and erotic (but hardly pornographic) photographs of nude and semi-nude Asian women.However,that is all that this book is. The photographs are beautiful and tastefully taken;however, there is no data provided on who the subjects are or why they have choesn to be photographed. There is a brief written introduction,written in polyglot and very vauge,extoling the virtues of Asian women--but it is of no use to anyone in search of love or a casual encounter. If you love erotic photography,I strongly recommend this book.However,if you are looking for pornography or a "how-to" manual for courting and/or seducing an Asain woman,you should look elsewere.
Rating:  Summary: Like any book, it's *great* for some, not for others Review: This book is titled Asian Women and features "oriental" or Southeastern Asian women rather than Indian and every other variation of the continent. I don't see that as anything to complain about. With Black Women, the author/photographer Ommer captured women of many skin tones and features, but did not shoot every type of black woman -- there were few light-skinned women, and none from the U.S. or Europe judging by their surrounding motifs -- yet that book was adored by reviewers who disliked this one. I thought both were very good, but prefer Asian Women simply because I like these photos more for various reasons. If you consider nudes exploitative, or feel that photos of women of color that might appeal to Western males are somehow evil, please seek other types of photography to enjoy and spare yourself the moral qualms. People, Westerners and otherwise, find certain physical characteristics attractive and enjoy admiring and examining them -- even if those characteristics are primarily found among a different ethnicity. Nothing wrong with that as far as I can tell. And it doesn't explain why my wife, a fellow photography enthusiast, also likes this book. So, if you appreciate the following: artistic nude photography (i.e., deft lighting, compostion, posing and yes, *emotion*) with a sensual twist, vibrant colors and beautiful Asian women -- who can be appreciated for any and many reasons that don't include "Western superiority" or exploitation -- than I would very highly recommend this book for you. I agree with the reviewers who likened this to some rare books from the Asahi Press in Japan. Put the political correctness aside and enjoy these photos for whatever reason you want, but be assured that visually they are both technically sound and sensually stirring.
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