The Mammoth Book of Gorgeous Guys: Erotic Photographs of Men

by Barbara Cardy

This collection of erotic art features over 400 erotic portraits of male nudes, some of them tastefully explicit, from some of the world's leading photographers. This stunning collection brings together the best work, in both black-and-white and color images, of over 50 different artists from all over the world.

Genres: Nonfiction, Art, Photography, Erotica, Art and Photography

480 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Containing over 400 photographs from 46 well known photographers there is no doubt this book contains something for everyone. A lot of these photos are erotic and the book is full of nude or semi nude guys but I think you'll be surprised at the variety of men included. They aren't all what you'd consider typically handsome guys and you'll find men from all walks of life: different ages, races, shapes and sizes, from body builders to guys with loads of piercings and anything in between. Not all of these men are conventionally good looking (in fact some are quite the opposite) but the way they have been captured by the photographers tends to make them shine with confidence.

Not all of the shots are explicit, there are a lot of fully or partially clothed pictures or photos that focus on one part of the body like a face or torso that are really artistic and actually quite beautiful. The pictures are featured in collections by photographer and while some artists were more to my taste than others I think they all had something unique to add to the collection.

This book is a celebration of the male body and all the many forms it comes in and I have no doubt that there is enough variety included to keep anyone coming back for more.

Here are just a few examples of the kind of pictures you'll find (obviously I went with non-explicit ones for this review!):

[Zai Zai · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess "erotic" are the friends we meet along the way haha. This book did not gag me. There is just a general lack of diversity here in both race and body types. Some pictures with the cheap props, low exposure, ugly make-up and the like screamed amateur hour. I certainly do not think this collection was made for women or maybe anyone at all lol. Not everything here is tacky tho but yeah I can't gaslight myself to see anything artsy in over half of the shots contained.

[Kah Cherub · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, there isn't much to read in this book... LOL, but the art is really good. It's very interesting to see how different artists portrait the male figure. How they challenge conventions. Don't let the title fool you, they are not all gorgeous in the conventional way. Most of them are actually kind of ugly (LOL, sorry!), but they're so confident, they have so much attitude it draws you in. They're all so strong and, at the same time, so vulnerable. And, as the editors say in the introduction: "There is no wrong or right way to look. The only mistake would be not to look. And wonder."

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

As an artist I was impressed to see a book showing diverse men of many shapes, sizes and colours. However, on further inspection it was sad to see that only about 4 of the 500(!) men featured were of Asian descent.
For many this won't matter, but truly diverse representation is an important issue for many men of colour such as myself.

[BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the whole, the photos in this book, although (very) good, are not as exquisite as the ones in The Male Nude. Some photos can be found in both books by the way, like one of my favourites, The Swimmer by Dianora Niccolini.

[Devin Lind · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book doesn't disappoint. There are lots of nice photographs.