Masterpieces Of Erotic Photography

In 1977, when respectable coffee tables were generally expected to support books about steam railways, royal weddings or the paintings of Constable, Masterpieces of Erotic Photography arrived to give the furniture a rather more demanding social role. Edited and introduced by Michael Pellerin, this large-format collection brings together the work of twelve leading contemporary photographers, all addressing eroticism—that elusive territory between art, desire, fashion and somebody hastily turning the book face down when an elderly relative enters the room.

The contributors include David Bailey, Harri Peccinotti, Art Kane, Duane Michals, Victor Skrebneski, Kishin Shinoyama, John Thornton, Barry Lategan, Sam Haskins, Oliviero Toscani, Christian Vogt and Jeanloup Sieff. This is therefore not merely a miscellaneous collection of naked people photographed near strategically positioned houseplants. Each photographer brings a recognisable visual language, ranging from polished fashion imagery and carefully controlled studio compositions to surreal, playful and more psychologically suggestive work.

Presented in both colour and black and white, the photographs reflect a period when erotic imagery was being absorbed into fashion, advertising and serious art photography, while everyone concerned maintained an admirably grave expression. Bodies become exercises in line, light, texture and shadow; poses become statements about liberation and desire; and the removal of trousers becomes, under appropriate gallery lighting, an important investigation into the human condition.

The collection is especially evocative of 1970s visual culture, an age of bold compositions, experimental layouts and the firm conviction that modernity required either a white studio, an interesting shadow or an alarming quantity of hair. Some images are elegant, others theatrical, humorous or deliberately provocative. Together they demonstrate how differently photographers can approach the same broad theme once supplied with cameras, models and sufficient confidence to call the result a masterpiece.

Despite the title, this is not a chronological history of erotic photography, nor is it a technical manual for the aspiring boudoir photographer. It is a curated showcase of twelve distinctive practitioners working within the field at the time of publication. Pellerin’s introduction provides the formal permission to regard the contents thoughtfully, although readers remain free to admire the lighting without preparing an academic paper about it.

The book now also operates as a period document. Its attitudes, aesthetics and photographic techniques belong unmistakably to the late 1970s, before digital retouching made skin entirely poreless and before every amateur with a telephone could take four hundred photographs during breakfast. These images were composed, lit, processed and printed as deliberate finished works, with no instant preview and no convenient filter called “Moody European Sensuality.”

A handsome production from Aurum Press, Masterpieces of Erotic Photography will appeal to collectors of photographic books, admirers of the featured photographers, students of fashion and visual culture, and anyone attempting to assemble a coffee-table collection that discourages casual browsing by the vicar. It is artistic, unapologetically adult and considerably more sophisticated than its wonderfully direct title might suggest.

This copy is in Good condition, with the ordinary signs of previous ownership and use expected of a book published in 1977. It remains entirely suitable for study, display or leaving conspicuously beneath a volume on Renaissance sculpture so that the household can maintain plausible intellectual deniability. Supplied by Crappy Old Books, where masterpieces are permitted, eroticism is handled maturely, and the condition report keeps its clothes on.

Keep browsing: See more Art books Other books by Michael Pellerin