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Review

There are plenty Gods of Sport on display in this lavish coffee table book. On that front the book delivers, unfortunately it only shines brightly in a portion of the images. Featuring naked athletes from various rugby and football teams, Pedro Virgil does succeed in two ways with this collection. First he showcases their unbelievably beefy bodies, and second he seems to have convinced them to shed some of their inhibitions. Apart from some very delicious images though, the collection as a whole falls somewhat flat. The body makeup and industrial settings never really come together and get somewhat monotonous about halfway through the book.

Overall what this collection could have used was less body paint, less staging, and even a modest dash of full frontal nudity of which there is none. Despite the abundance of naked backsides it feels very unnatural; a bit too conservative.

It isn’t that I didn’t like the book but I wanted more than it delivered. As a coffee table addition it is beautifully bound and very large in size. The images are clear and the men are definitely worth the attention. I would have preferred them however in a cleaner more organic setting than an abandoned warehouse covered in fake grease.

 -- Nick Strathern