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Grady Harp wrote on 08/25/2010:

The premise behind Anthony Gayton's color saturated photographs of men is an interesting one: capture the long history of depiction of male erotica from mythology, Renaissance and Baroque painting, Victoriana sepia tones, and physique photography from the early Hollywood influenced era. Such a survey in and of itself is an interesting bit of scholarship made visual and for that the book is fine.

The problem with these photographs is that they appear so staged, so artificially posed from reference materials that there is little life to the images. Now granted, that may be the intention here, to 're-create' images and tales from the past in the way the art festivals (think Laguna Beach Art Festival!) create frozen paintings by transforming props and sets and touched by paint people to astonish the viewers. But just at the moment these images could become sensual they rely heavily on quotation and the history of it all gets in the way.

The photographic techniques are sound and the color is splendid. And of course the models are spectacular. For the collector of male photography this would be an added diversion, much along the lines of Pierre & Gilles, and that is not a bad comparison!