Uncovered: Rare Vintage Male Nudes Hardcover – 14 April 2009

I enjoy collecting photo books and I have learnt that the ones I love most are those which combine text with the photos. I like to know something about the model and/or the photographer, the historical and personal context - not forgetting that the photo itself is the main attraction. This book meets those demands well. It's also printed on good quality paper and produced to a high standard.

i like this very much

This book includes unpublished photographs from the archives of various collectors and photographers, from an age of greater innocence but also less freedom to take and publish the male nude.

un libro molto interessante.... offre numerosi spunti per chi come me frequenta un corso di disegno e pittura: il corpo maschile dà offe un gioco di ombre e masse che quello femminile non dà, essendo la muscolatura molto differente...

Reed Massengill continues to gather images and historical data that enhance his own very fine books of photography of the male nude. In UNCOVERED: RARE VINTAGE MALE NUDES he has gathered the works by ten brave men who had the courage to create images of the nude male before the censorship by the publishing firms changed following the 1969 Stonewall turnaround. While some of the photographers included in this monograph are well known and bridged that hiatus separating forbidden and completely accepted work, there are also 'new faces' whose work demands attention.The 'uncovered male nudes' in this collection are often only partially revealed, as in the photographs by George Platt Lynes (1907 - 1955): positioning and shadows protect the eye form the full model image. Don Whitman (1916 - 1998) worked with body builders and carefully used the 'posing strap' to prevent viewer disdain. Likewise Al Urban (1917 - 1992) and Earle Forbes (1897 - 1970) focused on the posing Greek ideal for their Physique Images.But with Plato (1925 - 2003) and John Shreeve Barrington (1920 - 1991) the element of eroticism in the art of male nude photography opened some doors: models were captured more in the privacy of the wild then in the studio and the freedom of posing choices expanded, but still with a sense of restraint. The images of Antonio Arabia (1931 - 1993) are more natural (models in the woodlands) and in many ways more erotic, and the images by Vulcan (b. 1921) and Robert Galster (1923 - 1991) invite the viewer to become involved in the scenario. Many of these images have never been published and Massengill provides a welcome bridge between the art of the male nude as popularized by the many practitioners of excellence today.This is an important volume and one that will find a larger audience than many other books on the male nude: the images are less threatening to the viewer than the subsequent work of say Mapplethorpe et al. Massengill introduces each of the featured photographers with a brief but historically and artistically significant essay on both the artist and the particular constraints that surrounded the art of each. Grady Harp, May 09

I really like this book. It has large photos of beautiful guys, generally full on exposure. Some of the poses are definitely period driven but some of them are outside. Over all the guys just look very good (not super models by today's standards) and are the types of guys you're much more likely to come across in a real world situation. Plus they're not manscaped, thankfully!

This collection of male nudes from the physique pictorial era of the 1940s and 50s presents photos of what its editor explains are from lesser known photographers of that genre. They have the hallmarks of that form, particularly its classicism and theatricality. The photos are well chosen. The scenes are well-constructed by the photographers, and the models exude a calm, masculine beauty and candor that immediately jumps off the page. The male physique pictorial photography of this era was, of course, highly scripted. Those interested in innovation or uniqueness will not appreciate this or similar collections. But like Byzantine icons the beauty in this art form is the artists' ability to stimulate an emotional response and bring a subtle individualism through the strictures and protocols of a defined classicism.There are two exceptional features of this collection. The first is the short histories of each of the ten photographers' lives and work, many of whom are completely forgotten by all except a handful of dedicated collectors of male physique photography. The recounting of how the images created by these men who loved men and the male body were rescued for almost certain destruction, and how the photographers themselves were persecuted for creating and sharing these photos is deeply moving and historically important to tell. The second noteworthy feature is that the book has fairly high production values for its price-range. There has been a new wave of reproduction of vintage male erotica in recent years, and the qualities of such books vary enormously. While "Uncovered" does not have the same production values of a high-end coffee-table collection put out by a big publishing house, the paper on which the photos are printed is good. The images are clear and crisp, and the models retain all the vigor and masculine energy that their photographers saw in them when they stood before the camera decades ago. This is a book worth having in your collection for many years to come.

This is a collection of beautiful vintage photos, some of which are almost haunting in their beauty. A good addition to any collection of tasteful artistic male nudes.