The Bottom Line: Petter Hegre's 100 Naked girls is an excellent look into the world of nude photography, yet he misses out on a truly artistic opportunity by not photography all body types.
I'm sure that a lot of people are going to read this review thinking that this is just a book of naked women. They aren't going to look past the fact that these women are lacking clothes to see the art in the photography, nor are they going to take the time to see the beauty in the feminine form. Most people will see it as something dirty, something pornographic to say the least. This is most definitely not what this book is about.
I am a huge fan of art, especially the human form. I admire the human body, and have many paintings and sculptures that feature the human form throughout my house. A lot of the works that I have are abstracts, black and white, however, I represent both sexes equally and generally have both sexes represented in each piece of art that I have. My love of art doesn't just consist of nudes, however, I find the human body to be truly amazing, I'm not ashamed by it, and neither should anyone else for that matter.
About the book
The book is essentially 100 pages of photographs taken by the famous nude photographer Petter Hegre. The pictures are taken of real women, in real situations, in realistic environments and poses.
I find that far too often pornography is disguised as art, but there is definitely a huge difference. The soft pornography that most people relate this to, is done in a manner that exposes more of the body in a sexual manner, rather than exposing the body as a means of art. The photographs within this book aren't done just to show off body parts and skin, but they are done to show the raw character of the model. To show their true beauty.
Another great thing about this book is that supposably the photographer doesn't do any touchups. The women are as they are in reality. This is something that I love about his works. To take a woman that is natural and put her in an environment that is definitely art. To take a woman and touch her up from the raw form, definitely takes something away from the artistic nature of the photography and leans it more towards the soft pornography end of the market.
The women featured in the books are generally unaltered, many of them are unshaven, and have faults that you would expect a woman to have. While he attempts to take pictures from their best angles, he doesn't hide freckles, moles, or anything that you would normally see in modern photography using models.
The only thing that I wish his books covered more of, would be the more realistic female form. There are one hundred different women in this book, however, the book doesn't feature any overweight women, it doesn't feature any short women, it basically only features women that are naturally beautiful. But I think bigger women can be beautiful in art as well. I think by not taking pictures of a larger spectrum, he truly missed an opportunity for an amazing artistic piece of work.
About the Author
Petter Hegre is a world renowned photographer, and author of 6 books of photography. He attended the Brooks Institute of Photography in California, and studied under Richard Avedon, another famous photographer in New York. Petter was awarded Photographer of the Year in 2001 by the Erotic Oscars in London.
Other books written by Hegre include Luba, a critically acclaimed book featuring his model wife. Other works include Wild Shaven Angel, Marketa, My wife, and Russian Lolita. All of which are widely sold books of photography.
Final Thoughts
If you truly do love the human form and love to look at art in photography, then this is a great book. It features a lot of beautiful women, in fairly natural poses, without any editing or air brushing.
While I do think that there were some artistic opportunities that Petter missed out on, I believe he did an excellent job of showing the true outer beauty of women, without turning the pictures into raunchy, pornographic ones.
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