Hindsight

Art Fotografix #1

by Boris Vallejo

Book by Vallejo, Boris

Genres: Art

128 pages, Hardcover

Published November 10, 1998

About the author

Boris Vallejo is a Peruvian-born American painter. He immigrated to the United States in 1964, and he currently resides in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Vallejo works almost exclusively in the fantasy and erotica genres. His paintings have graced the covers of dozens of science fiction paperbacks and are featured in a series of best-selling glossy calendars. Subjects of his paintings are typically Sword and sorcery gods, monsters, and well-muscled male and female barbarians engaged in battle. His latest works still retain heavy fantasy elements, but lean more towards the erotic rather than pure fantasy themes.

Reviews

[Benjamin Hare · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boris Vallejo is a much loved and prolific painter of fantasy artwork for books, movie posters, and magazines. This book is a collection of his reference photography focusing predominately—but not exclusively—on the shapely bottoms of lovely ladies. The photos evoke a luxurious, sensual reaction since he's setting the lighting and texture of the costumes to evoke the mood for the painting to come. Many of these are not photos originally intended for publication; rather they're utilitarian and thus lack the polish of a magazine photo-shoot. Instead, they're pictures of lovely, flesh and blood women wearing strategically sparse dress and striking heroic poses. It's as far away from cheesecake as possible, but no less beautiful. There is very little text in the book; just a short three page essay wherein Vallejo discusses his process in the studio. If you're a fan of Vallejo's work you'll probably recognize the paintings that resulted from nearly every one of these photos. The book can be enjoyed in a single setting, just thumbing through the pages, but each image can be savored over the course of days and you'll find something new to appreciate each time.

My only complaint about the book is the low quality of it's construction. The spine is glued together and cracked within a few years and now my copy is falling apart. Since this book had such a low print run and new copies are no longer being made, it can be tricky to find at reasonable prices. If you have a choice pick up the hard cover edition.