Comfort of Dreams

Rating:
Summary: De-mystifying the erotic, Re-mystifying the male
Review: The penis -- much less the erect penis -- is always problematic when photographing the male nude. Don Pasquella, a corporate and documentary film-maker and teacher of cinema, has tried to de-mystify the inherent eroticism of the male genitalia while seeking to restore a sense of mystery and sensuality to more everyday parts of the male anatomy -- the leg, the shoulder, the forearm.

This book contains 61 photographs of nude males, generally aged 18-25 with a few older men shown for contrast. Pasquella uses soft-focus photography as well as juxtaposed images to try to evoke a new sense of excitement about the male nude. The early part of the book breaks the body down into its component parts -- arms, legs, buttocks, genitals. Subsequent sections focus on facial expressions, the signals that various body parts (hairy vs. un-hairy chest, jeans with the top button undone vs. closed jeans) convey, the interplay of shadow and light, the connections two men make when parts of the body touch, and the mystery of arousal and clothing.

Some photographs lack emotional "oomphf", and others seem too heavy-handed in making their point. But there are real flashes of brilliance here. Pasquella may not have succeeded in de-mystifying the male nude (or the naked penis), but his work hs promise and takes a step foward in moving the male nude away from the static quality of Bianchi's "living statues" and the un-subtle pornography of Dean Keefer and Howard Roffman.

Rating:
Summary: Sixty pages of really thought-provoking images.
Review: This little softcover book is a real gem.

It focuses on the penis, but not in a brutal clinical way. More in the way that the penis is an extension of the man who owns it.

This collection of dreamy and often misty B&W images of mostly very cute and pretty young men is immediately endearing. There are some beautiful key-light lit studies of young men against a black bakground that are perhaps cliched, but at the time they were taken (80s) were still fresh.

A nice little book to put on your shelf, and it's not very expensive.