Come Closer [Anglais] [Relié]

Nobody shoots erotica like Frenchman Didier Carre! His artistic flair is matched only by the scintillating sexuality of work. And his composition and style are so otherworldly, that he is genuinely in a class all to himself. This new book follows up on the success of his first, "Stainless Ladies", and continues along with that most remarkable vision. And just like its predecessor,"Come Closer" is exquisitely packaged by its publisher (Edition Skylight).

Didier's lush, black & white images showing beautiful models with their most intimate parts propped up for full display are what make this work so exciting. But that Didier can showcase a woman pleasuring herself with a glass sex toy, and do so in such a manner as to make the image worthy of display in the finest of museums, is what makes this a work of genius. This is fine art erotica of the highest caliber!

I sometimes shoot intimate photography for close friends and lovers and bought this book to add to my collection to help inspire my subjects and have them tell me what they like. The quality is impecable but the style and format repeated. The subjects are looking at the camera with that 'Have you got the shot yet?' look in their eyes yet in a sexual context when they should have had that pending orgasmic look of bliss on their faces-building to the release of climax. The only other critisism is the overuse of the same toys. My instinct said if I saw those images happening at a party I'd be thinking 'Oh dear girls, I hope you disinfected that!' A sense of safety creates the room to 'cut loose'.

Some very beautiful images but a lot too much of too similar. One can't tell if we're intended to be worshipping the female form (looking into the lens-connecting with the viewer) or celebrating female sexuality-The faraway look, the relaxed closed eyes and wide open mouth and head back of 'Oooooooh yeeeeeeah!', the tightly squeezed face and squint of 'Oh God!! here I come!!' The sexuality of the context made the realxed gaze at the camera out of place, made it too much 'is this how you want me to look?'

Notwithstanding some very beautiful images but the similarity of the whole body of work has pushed this photographers other works a little further down my wish list.

This book illuminates the notion that in the most simplistic and uniform representation (placid expressions, same sex toys, same background, lighting scheme) women are essentially beautiful. The models struck me as "doll-like," in their emotionless and highly calculated poses. In saying that I could tell that the photographer tried to detach himself from the models and create a universal beauty that all could enjoy. I say that because in most models you can see a reflection of the photographer in their model. In this work I felt that special attention was paid to get the models into dreamy placid states so that they could be as detached as possible, as if the images were taken of girls in trances. This level of depth in my eyes was achieved and I think it is an awesome feat for an artist of any guild to put their mastery to work and create their ideal of beauty.

There is a certain immaculate appearance that reoccurred throughout the photo book that added greatly to the aesthetic feeling. Most all of the models reveal what is between their legs and in combination with impeccable lighting the end result is fantastic. Anyone who has tried to photograph a woman between her legs will most likely be in awe after seeing these pictures, truly something to aspire to.

At first I had missed the landscapes posed next to the models but after I looked through the book a few times I locked onto them. Aside from the landscapes matching the models I think it was wise to put in the occasional landscape because a book of just one kind of picture gets boring really fast.

The book is a little larger than a 5x7 and when I first got it that was kind of a let down because I enjoy large format books best. The small size however is deceiving because there is a lot of content and subtleties that I really had to look for. If you can try and make out that shape inside the front cover, if you move the page you can make out the reflection, maybe another phallic symbol?