Rating: 
Summary: pretty good book!
Review: A lot of excellent pictures of famous people.... I am definitely glad that I bought it....
Rating: 
Summary: I was very impressed - packed to the brim with great pics!
Review: A lot of these celebrity/photography books lack substance and are the same old same old, but this was packed with a lot of pictures I have never seen, and is really a feast for the eyes. I tend to buy a lot of these types of books, but this is the absolute best value for money - a great investment!
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Summary: Spontaneous, fun glamour photography; creative presentation
Review: Actors, artists, models, musicians and athletes. Sante d'Orazio shot them all, and presents them here in a very clever collage of a photo diary spanning from 1985 to 1997. Mixed among the shots which made it to publication in the world's top fashion magazines is a wide array of attitude poses, candid moments, playful outtakes, and perhaps even a couple of photographic bloopers. What draws me to this book is the imagery of whirlwind travel, all-night parties, and romping photo sessions, contained in a just-thrown-together scrapbook fashion augmented by airplane tickets, foreign currency, watercolor painting and cryptic hand-written notes by the photographer himself. This guy leads a fun life, and has the pictures to prove it.If you like models, you'll love this book, and d'Orazio's nude photos--some raw, some refined--are excellent. Sometimes it's hard to tell whether he snuck up on somebody, or if the setting was planned; nevertheless, it's all a blast. I'm intrigued by the picture of Kate Moss sitting sideways in an empty tub, smoking a cigarette and reading a book entitled "Help Your Husband Get Ahead." The presentation of randomly-ordered contrasting moods--prim versus toussled, serene versus crazy, color versus black & white, staged versus candid--gives this book a variety that, to me, stays fresh and interesting. The b/w's outnumber the color shots, and are far better, in my opinion. I always appreciate a subject/date/locale photo index, which can be found in the back, although one must hunt through the thumbnail pix to find a specific shot because there are no page numbers anywhere. This book would be perfect if the format was slightly larger, and if the photos (i.e., events) were in chronological order, so as to catch the natural flow of a diary; however, these are only minor detractions. Keep flipping the pages . . . and enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Really, really good.
Review: After browsing through the photography section at my local bookstore I was surprised to find the most impressive work I've seen in years not in one of the many, many large expensive hardcover coffee-table books but a compact, paperback folio. The women are tremendously glamorous and if I may say so D'Orazio's photographs of men are much sexier than those found in most so called "gay" photography books. His images have the natural, spontaneous feel of Bruce Weber or Steven Meisel rather than that contrived, fetishistic, posed style typical of Herb Ritts or Mapplethorpe. Along with an out-of-print book by French photographer RV Lebeaupin titled Photographies: Joue-Le Moi Plaisir this is one of the sexiest photo books I've come across.
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Summary: JAY DAVIDSON FANS
Review: D'Orazio's wonderful photo collection of the famous and not so famous is worth the price of the book just for the four pages devoted to the gender bending Jaye Davidson who has helped this gay reader accept and enjoy himself. Candid photo's of Christie and Naomi, Matt Dillon, Dennis Hopper, Claudia Schiffer, John Travolta and on and on... give personal insights into celebities I have never encounterd in the fashion magazines or the tabloids. This collection is fun, revealing, and, at times, upsetting. And worth every penny.
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Summary: A fun, fabulous read, darling!
Review: Have this book around your place and you'll lose your guests for at least half an hour (the minimum time anyone can leaf through this book.) All the pretty people are in here, and although Sante seems kind of goofy and slightly dopey in his notes, he comes across as nice and respectful of all his subjects. This is a fun book -- get it if you're into nude supermodels and fantasies of la dolce vita!
Rating:
Summary: A feast of beauty
Review: Human beauty is the only natural resource we haven't managed to taint yet and this book is a feast of it. The photographs of Mr. D'Orazio's now ex-wife Kara Young are a poignant reminder that love (and loveliness) are passing joys, to be savored here and now.
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Summary: Wonderful fashion photography
Review: I am a fashion photographer, and I bought this book as a reference to see how Sante D'Orazio (once an unknown name to me) worked. Upon opening the cover I saw some familiar pictures, Stephanie Seymour's famous Playboy features etc, and I didn't even know it was shot by Sante. His use of lighting, his composition and his obvious communication with the models and celebrities were ruthlessly revealed. Honestly, I would even buy his outtakes! The sidenotes distracted, but some of them are actually quite funny (like they got locked up in Thailand doing a Vogue feature etc). There are also tiny amount of photographic info in the sidenotes, like the film used and exposure control etc. The best thing I like is the way he captured the instants that could just pass without a trace. Note that the smoke from Seymour's mouth is still rising, and some other models were definitely shot while they were just 'jumping around'. It's very hard to capture the spontaneity of things, especially in fashion. This book has taken a permanent place on my coffee table.
Rating: 
Summary: Too Slick And Busy; Not Artistic Enough
Review: I bought this book some time ago, along with "Men Before 10am". My copy of "Men" now has its binding coming apart from paging through it so frequently whereas this book looks brand new in comparison. That pretty much tells the story. This work is just not artistic enough for me. I know D'Orazio's done mostly commercial photography but so has Bruce Weber and there is no comparison between their work in the art of photography. Weber is an artist and D'Orazio is not. Also missing is emotional content. His few photographs of Al Pacino have emotional content but Pacino's photographs always do because he projects that for the photographers. When D'Orazio photographs a model, by contrast, there's nothing in the resulting photograph beyond the obvious. I guess D'Orazio is fine for magazines but I never hope to see his work hanging in art museums. Someone should also mention the word "simplicity" to him. This book is way too busy with imagery. Less would have been more in his case.
Rating:
Summary: A very pleasant surprise
Review: I enjoyed this book. I must say that I love the format of it and I really like the way it plays out. What could have been a completely pretentious book is made quite human by the inclusion of the outtakes and the drawings. He has a great eye for photography. Well worth the money.
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