6 Autobots
allhailgrimlock

Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus

I'm a well read grad student who's bluntly honest about all things, although I try to be most honest about myself.   

Currently reading

Separate Orbits
Yael Mermelstein
Progress: 119/427pages
BATMAN #53 ((Regular Cover)) - DC Comics - 2018 - 1st Printing
LeeWeeksBatman53, TomKingBatman53
BATMAN #54 ((Regular Cover)) - DC Comics - 2018 - 1st Printing
MattWagnerBatman54, TomKingBatman54
BATMAN #52 ((DC REBIRTH)) ((Regular Cover)) - DC Comics - 2018 - 1st Printing
LeeWeeksBatman52, TomKingBatman52
BATMAN #51 ((DC REBIRTH)) ((Regular Cover)) - DC Comics - 2018 - 1st Printing
LeeWeeksBatman51, TomKingBatman51
Infinity Wars: Iron Hammer (2018) #1 (of 2)
Al Ewing, Humberto Ramos
Champions (2019-) #4
Jim Zub, Jacinto Benavente
SUICIDE SQUAD #46 ((Regular Cover)) - DC Comics - 2018 - 1st Printing
JosLuisSS46, RobWilliamsSS46
SUICIDE SQUAD #45 ((SINK ATLANTIS)) ((DC REBIRTH )) ((Regular Cover)) - DC Comics - 2018 - 1st Printing
JosLuisSuicideSquad45, RobWilliamsSuicideSquad45
Champions (2019-) #3
Jim Zub, Jacinto Benavente

Nude photography

Study of Ebony Skin in Vacant Office Building - Nude Figure Studies of Art Model Vanessa Jeanene - Color and Select Black & White Photograph (Vanessa Jeanene's Nudes Book 4) - Yucel Yalim

I got this off Amazon for a couple different reasons, the first being I was curious about what they would allow since they've nixed books for odd reasons.   The second, the more compelling for me, was that I was, and still am, curious about the human form - and again for a couple reasons.   As an artist, yes, but also as someone who tried to pretend the human form did it for me for a long, long time.   I think I look at books like this as a reminder of how little it does for me. 

 

I still pick up the occasional photography e-book for free - either nude studies or even porn, or cosplay, or even wildlife - just because I'm interested in the art of the photography.   I'm particularly interested in the human form: I can find it quite beautiful even if I find it not at all arousing. 

 

That being said, this was a mix.   Some photographs showed more mastery than others, some were more compelling than others.   I picked it up for free a while ago.   I enjoyed the images, so I'm glad I picked it up, but it wasn't as fantastic as other photography books.  I'm spoiled, though.   After Francois Nars' excellent X-Ray, though, I find it hard not to compare or hold other books up to those standards, in the mastery of makeup, the mastery of color and composition, and the satiric view which with it presented so many of its subjects.   It had weight, it had meaning, and it showed you that meaning in its full lushness and vibrancy.   

 

Is that harsh of me?   Perhaps.   But once I've seen that, once I've reveled in that book's playfulness-as-social-commentary, it's hard not to compare.  The people were, for the most part, more clothed, but there was something more sensual about the subjects in X-Ray.  

 

No, this book didn't measure up, but it was far from the worst photography I've seen.   I believe this was meant to be sexual rather commentary upon the world, and I think there's this conception that it's presumptuous or impossible - or at least hard that it's not really worth trying - or that people won't respond to that.   

 

I not only believe that that isn't true, I believe that people respond to substance.   As nice as some of these photographs were, perhaps I didn't respond to them as I did to Nars' photographs because the playfulness and substance simply weren't there.