Men in the Sun

Rating:
Summary: SOME LIKE THEM
Review: Most of male photograph books nowadays are neither sensual nor aesthetical. But some pictures of this book are nice and erotic , especially p.73-77.Some like them. If I could select male nudes photos, I would afford better or maybe the best album.

Rating:
Summary: A Hopeless Mess
Review: This little gimmick of book, a small paperback, is totally unorganized, with phony section titles imposed on random photos, so that we have "Men in the Sun," "Men Cooling Off," "Men in the Water," etc. The actual photos in those different sections prove underwhelming vis-a-vis these grandiose designations. Whoever rushed to get this book out would have done better just to present the photos contiguously, but that would have denied the opportunity to use two filler pages per section. It took me about five minutes to flip through and get a sense of all of the photos in this little pamphlet of a book.

The "literary" selections are gratuitous, adding nothing to our appreciation of the photographs and usually having nothing to do with them. For example, the author has reprinted at length the opening vignette from Brad Gooch's novel Scary Kisses, which is kind of sexy on its own but whose only apparent criteria for inclusion in this volume are its homoeroticism and the coincidence that it takes place -in the sun! So, too, with the other literary paraphernalia. It's filler.

Worst of all, the photos themselves aren't even erotic or sexy. I know, this is a subjective observation, and I admit that a few of the individual photos are more nuanced, or provocative, or more sophisticated than others. But for the most part, the photos are artless and tacky, as when a jet of water is used to camouflage the buttocks of a presumably nude man darting out of a swimming pool. That kind of thing belongs on a postcard for Miami Beach. As for the men themselves, this little collection presents a broad range from pretty boy models to bald weight lifter types to African Americans and even a baby for good measure. The overall effect is of schizophrenia, not serendipity, and instead of finding something to celebrate in diversity, this book merely finds chaos.

You can do better with your money.

Rating:
Summary: A Hopeless Mess
Review: This little gimmick of book, a small paperback, is totally unorganized, with phony section titles imposed on random photos, so that we have "Men in the Sun," "Men Cooling Off," "Men in the Water," etc. The actual photos in those different sections prove underwhelming vis-a-vis these grandiose designations. Whoever rushed to get this book out would have done better just to present the photos contiguously, but that would have denied the opportunity to use two filler pages per section. It took me about five minutes to flip through and get a sense of all of the photos in this little pamphlet of a book.

The "literary" selections are gratuitous, adding nothing to our appreciation of the photographs and usually having nothing to do with them. For example, the author has reprinted at length the opening vignette from Brad Gooch's novel Scary Kisses, which is kind of sexy on its own but whose only apparent criteria for inclusion in this volume are its homoeroticism and the coincidence that it takes place -in the sun! So, too, with the other literary paraphernalia. It's filler.

Worst of all, the photos themselves aren't even erotic or sexy. I know, this is a subjective observation, and I admit that a few of the individual photos are more nuanced, or provocative, or more sophisticated than others. But for the most part, the photos are artless and tacky, as when a jet of water is used to camouflage the buttocks of a presumably nude man darting out of a swimming pool. That kind of thing belongs on a postcard for Miami Beach. As for the men themselves, this little collection presents a broad range from pretty boy models to bald weight lifter types to African Americans and even a baby for good measure. The overall effect is of schizophrenia, not serendipity, and instead of finding something to celebrate in diversity, this book merely finds chaos.

You can do better with your money.