Familiar Men: A Book of Nudes

by Laurie Toby Edison, Debbie Notkin

In general, if we see male nudes at all in this culture, we see only the most muscular and buffed of the weight-lifting culture. To counter these limited images, internationally exhibited photographer Laurie Toby Edison provides this suite of nude photographs of a wide variety of men. The men represent a huge variety in age, race, ethnicity, body type, social class, and level of physical ability. The men photographed include college professors, rock musicians, aerospace and warehouse workers, computer consultants, retired businessmen, dancers, disability activists, museum directors, and tattoo artists. The text, by Debbie Notkin and Richard F. Dutcher, features a long essay, "To Be a Man," as well as an assortment of quotations on masculinity from models and others.

Genres: Photography, Nonfiction, Art

80 pages, Paperback

First published September 6, 2003

Reviews

[Tosei · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting photography collection. Definitely worth a read/look. Not only are there photographs, but there are also sections of insightful writing on the societal images of men and the pressures that are put on them to fit into specific boxes.

I may be being very nit-picky here, but I would have been even more impressed had the book opened its doors to transgender men as well as cisgender men. Though transgender men are mentioned briefly in one of the paragraphs in the back of the book, neither the photographs nor the Forward by Michael Kimmel seem to consider them to be a part of the male population.

Anyhow, this is definitely a book I would recommend, especially to those who are not very familiar with the concepts, ideas, and social implications of gender roles.