10 Best Nude Photography Books

The must-have photography monograph of the year, this lavish oversized volume celebrates David Yarrow’s unparalleled wildlife imagery. For more than two decades, legendary British photographer David Yarrow has been putting himself in harm’s way to capture immersive and evocative photography of the world’s most revered and endangered species. With his images heightening awareness of those species and also raising huge sums for charity and conservation, he is one of the most relevant photographers in the world today. Featuring Yarrow’s 150 most iconic photographs, this book offers a truly unmatched view of some of the world’s most compelling animals. The collection of stunning images, paired with Yarrow’s first-person contextual narrative, offers insight into a man who will not accept second best in his relentless pursuit of excellence. David Yarrow Photography offers a balanced retrospective of his spectacular work in the wild and his staged storytelling work, which has earned him wide acclaim in the fine-art market. Yarrow rarely just takes pictures–he almost always makes them. This approach sets him apart from others in the field. Yarrow’s work will awaken our collective conscience, and–true to form–he plans to donate all the royalties from this book to conservation

With the first centerfold image of the radiant Marilyn Monroe, Hugh M. Hefner masterminded a cultural icon: Playboy ‘s Playmate of the Month. This voluptuous new edition celebrates every nude centerfold from every issue of Playboy, from 1953 to February 2016. Initially published a decade ago, and now comprehensively updated, this must-have edition boasts 734 nude centerfolds and decade openers from literary luminaries, including an all-new essay by Elizabeth Wurtzel on the last decade of centerfolds, and a redesigned package that perfectly captures the complete cultural and aesthetic arc of the Playboy centerfold. With contributions by: – Robert Coover – Paul Theroux – Robert Stone – Jay McInerney – Daphne Merkin – Maureen Gibbon – Elizabeth Wurtzel

Dancers After Dark is an amazing celebration of the human body and the human spirit, as dancers, photographed nude and at night, strike poses of fearless beauty. Without a permit or a plan, Jordan Matter led hundreds of the most exciting dancers in the world out of their comfort zones–not to mention their clothes –to explore the most compelling reaches of beauty and the human form. After all the risk and daring, the result is extraordinary: 300 dancers, 400 locations, more than 150 stunning photographs. And no clothes, no arrests, no regrets. Each image highlights the amazing abilities of these artists–and presents a core message to the reader: Say yes rather than no, and embrace the risks and opportunities that life presents.

“This is a book about beauty. And about love for my friends.” -Nan Goldin This is an expanded and updated version of Nan Goldin’s seminal book The Other Side , originally published in 1993, featuring a revised introduction by Goldin, and, for the first time, the voices of those whose stories are represented. Published at a time when discourse around gender and sexual orientation is evolving rapidly, The Other Side traces some of the history that informs this new visibility. The first photographs in the book are from the 1970s, when Goldin lived in Boston with a group of drag queens and documented their glamour and vulnerability. In the early 1980s, Goldin chronicled the lives of transgender friends in New York when AIDS began to decimate her community. In the ’90s, she recorded the explosion of drag as a social phenomenon in New York, Berlin, Bangkok and the Philippines. Goldin’s newest photographs are intimate portraits, imbued with tenderness, of some of her most beloved friends. The Other Side is her homage to the queens she has loved, many of whom she has lost, over the last four decades. Nan Goldin (born 1953) lives and works between New York, Paris and Berlin. In 1978 Goldin moved to New York, where she presented slideshows in nightclubs and underground cinemas; her best known, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency , was published in 1986. In the ’90s Goldin relocated to Berlin where she published A Double Life with David Armstrong and the first edition of The Other Side. In 2000 she moved to Paris. In 2018 Goldin and her colleagues founded P.A.I.N. (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now), a direct action group advocating for addiction treatment and education in the mounting opioid crisis. Her publications with Steidl include The Beautiful Smile (2008) and Diving for Pearls (2016).