Put this beautiful book of Saudek's hand-colored photographs on your coffee table and wait for an unsuspecting guest to pick it up! That is exactly how I was introduced to the equisite artistry of Jan Saudek. Rarely seen outside of Europe, Saudek's imaginative and erotic photos are at once sensual and disturbing in composition.

Jan Saudek is the most important artist of his type. This beautiful hard-cover edition has many of Jan's most obscure work as well as some of his earlier works, many of which can not be found anywhere else. I have been amazed by this work and recommend it to anyone. It shows both the power and the development of Jan. We can see his style change from a wide eyed-ideailst to a bitter man, consumed with the evils of life and the horrors of humanity. Jan Saudek is truley the master.

This is a very interesting and beautiful book

Quiet a wide range of faked up "hand painted" photos, with subject varying from fat to slim, tall to short, male and female. I found some to be gross, some stupid, others interesting, some sexual, some quaint, mostly nudes but not always - but overall none struck me as simply good looking pictures. This book is for explorers of photography more than anything else. If the book cover is available - that's actually a bit more than what you get. I took someone's claim of "classic" photos and the lounging woman holding a skull (nude female Hamlet) to mean revamping the good-ole, graceful and refined (sometimes naughtily refined) nude classics like Venus emerging from the sea, various Greco-Roman statues, and flappers in breast revealing gowns - instead, most of these are just "experimental" photos which owe only a muddied color look to being classic. Maybe classics for the photographer - not really classic photos. I wish the author would go ahead and revamp the old classics, providing a modern "French postcard" series of photos. Oh well, you can only wish and hope that some day someone will...

Jan Saudek's photographs are certainly not for the backwoods Playboy fan; Saudek's work is much deeper and tinged with the Eastern European candor and fantasy akin to a Jerzy Kosinski tale. Saudek's literary narrative is firmly established in each image-story which is made more believable - as all good stories are - by his use of real, imperfect models. Saudek continues his story-plays by adding color to his prints in a very loose manner as if to wink at us as he embellishes the sometimes acrid image with a thin, sweet confection. This collection of Saudek's images gives a complete range of his work and is of excellent print quality; a rarity today at this price. As this edition demonstrates, Saudek is a major player in keeping the 'fine art' in the photographic medium while others play with computers.

Jan Saudek's Realities features the author's nude photography which blends traditional images with elements of the bizarre. All ages, sexes, and manner of men and women are included in a title which can be as shocking as eye-opening.

Saudek is to be lauded because he did some of his work in a Communist country. He has taken risks with nakedness and art, and that has made him a hero. This is eroticism for the masses for those who find this kind of photography appealing. But relationships and fantasies you find in a book such as this only exist in the mind.

My first viewing of Saudek's work was in the 1970's at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne Australia. On display were also the painstakingly beautiful hand-decorated envelopes that had contained his correspondence with the curator of photography. The envelopes confirmed the depths of Saudek's passion for his work and his conviction that he is showing us some of the most beautiful sights we will ever see.

Of course that is a judgement for the viewer, but the depth of sentiment here is undeniable, whether you see these fleshy images as overwhelming kitsch or as acts of love. At least one of his images you will have seen reproduced by countless other photographers ad nauseam - a monochrome photograph masculine arms clasping the naked body of a baby. That Saudek was probably the first to produce this image (significantly, in 1968) is an illustration of his originality and boldness - it was an image that dared to illustrate the 'feminine' side of men. The body of his work continues to be a barefaced provocation for those sensitive to the politically correct or the current media stereotype of the ideal body. It challenges those for whom sexuality and old age, or childhood, should be not seen together. Yes, he peers dangerously into the murk of pornography, but his luscious hand-coloured images emerge unscathed, full of honest sentimentality and an infectious sense of delight.I think the fact that my University's Library copy of this book was withdrawn from the collection due to the number of pages removed by readers is tribute enough!

This is an appropriately sumptuous book in its reproduction of Saudek's work, but with not nearly enough critical or biographical support in the text.

It can be hard for American public to embrace Saudek's art. You are so used to aibrushed, silicon-pumped, malnurished, shaved, bleached or otherwise "improved" women. In this, as in his other books, Saudek shows beauty & femininity unadorned. He is a genius & a bold man that refuses to follow the current trend of enhanced beauty. How refreshing in an abundant photographic deluge of perfected, smooth, unreal bodies. Plus we women do not come in sepia tones either. Abundand color makes us all so much more alive. Hurrah for femininity with a big F. Jump in into Saudek's book for a visual feast.