Das Verborgene Bild: Geschichte des männlichen Akts in der Fotografie des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts
Wien: Ariadne, 1987. First edition. Hardcover. Quarto. 190pp. Original photo-illustrated dust-jacket over blue paper covered boards, with white lettering on spine and front cover. "Das Verborgene Bild is both a stunning anthology of the male nude and a revealing history of how male sexuality has been portrayed photographically from the earliest daguerreotype self portrait of Hippolyte Bayard to the formalized fantasies of Robert Mapplethorpe. The 142 photographs include many previously unpublished portraits from both public and private collections in Europe and the United States. They include works by the historical luminaries Edward Weston, May Ray, Imogene Cunningham, and Cecil Beaton and the modern innovators David Hockney, Judy Dater, Dino Pedriali, and Joel Peter Witkin. Because it is not limited to one photographer or even one genre of photography, this work is a record of the changing iconography of the male nude and of the repression, the sublimation, and the taboos surrounding the depiction of the body. Some of the images, such as those by Weston and Cunningham, are romantic, misty shots of Adonis like figures lounging in painterly landscapes; others, like those of Eadweard Muybridge and Étienne Jules Marey, are multiframe studies of locomotion. Still others are formal poses that treat the male body in abstract sculptural terms. Some of the contemporary photographs depict erotic fantasies; others such as those of Joel Peter Witkin confront us head on with our deepest primal terrors" (from the publisher). Minor shelf wear. Text in German. Dust-jacket in overall good+, binding and interior in very good condition. vg. Item #36510
Price: $75.00