Lust Hardcover – June 23, 2008

The good in these 150+ photos is very good. In the best of thse photos, Lagrange captures the uniqueness of each model's beauty, as in Michele's unusual, slender grace. Other times, as with Carole and Albertina, he contrasts two very different ways for beauty to come alive. Yet others, such as 'Three Hands' or 'Ten Hands', Lagrange treats human material as abstraction, jarring the viewer into a new way of looking. And, unlike collections that show only European faces and figures, Lagrange honors the different beauty associated with lighter and darker skin tones.My favorites among these photos tend toward the simplest: plain portraits, in which the camera serves the woman in front of it. Those form a minority of these works, however. Far more often, Lagrange's models make up, dress up, and set up themselves in scenes that fulfill the photographer's specific vision. Many of these imply or clearly depict women, often in groups, on the weaker side of a control relationship - just not my thing, however gentle or willing it might be. I much prefer imagery that projects the woman's strength and self-possession.The fantasy scenes never (or rarely) cross into the crude, however. However it's used as material in the photographer's compositions, the models' loveliness still comes through, whether the focus is on face, figure, some other detail of the individual, or the interaction between models, often quite a few of them. I don't call this a must-have collection, but it's easy to enjoy anyway.-- wiredweird

The volume "Lust" is a fine example of Marc Lagrange's work, however, buyers should be aware that this is the same book as the Lagrange's "Sublimes" with only the cover photo changed.

This is one of 2008's most pleasant surprises and hits the mark perfectly for all those interested in fashion, modeling, and nude photography. Marc Lagrange is a fashion photographer based in Belgium. His work is probably best known in Europe but this collection proves that he deserves a much wider audience. Technically, his images are of the highest caliber and showcase a thorough mastery of light, design, and decorum. Stylistically, the work featured runs the gamut from fashion-themed material all the way to fine art portraiture. However, the defining element here is the nudity. Almost every shot features a slender, gorgeous young woman in various states of undress, and more often than not, completely nude. Many images feature groups of models. The make-up, the settings, and the subjects themselves are all fashionably perfect.Dimensions are 13x11" (33x28cm) and it contains 157 full-size photographs. Included is an interview with Lagrange (in English) as well as personal insights peppered throughout the book that discuss his methodology, approach, and such. Another thing done well is the index of photos cataloged at the end that provides technical and title information for each photo. A nice touch.Marc Lagrange is a huge talent and Lust is a beautiful, highly polished production jammed full of naked european fashion models. What's not to love?

I wish the text would have been more interesting, the interview is just the same words than through the book. I was a little bit disappointed but it still really interesting ! I would also loved a more prestigious look ;-)I love nice art books ;-)

1987. Tina Brown was trying to lure me to join her at Vanity Fair. I wanted to jump across the table and hug her, but I struggled to play hard to get. So she opened an envelope and handed me a dummy of a Vanity Fair cover --- a close-up of Faye Dunaway, wearing dark sunglasses and a veil. Photographed by Helmut Newton."Your first piece for the magazine," Ms. Brown said. "Want it?"Ms. Dunaway was not easy, and I needed some guidance from the man who took her measure with his camera. Newton's gone on to that place where fame doesn't matter, but in my memory book, when his name comes up, I don't think of his dramatic lighting or his sexually provocative poses. I recall how, as he spoke, I felt I could see what he was getting at.And now here is Marc Lagrange, a photographer who bears the burden of being described as "the next Newton".I can understand why. Most of the pictures in his first book are of models. Most of the models are nearly naked or tastefully naked; if naked, they are sleek, seductively fleshy."The environment and the beauty of women motivate me every day," Lagrange writes. "But the urge to capture more beautiful and fascinated [sic] images drives me to the limit." That caption is underneath a photograph of two women kissing as a man wearing a flashy sport jacket and gangster's necktie gestures with a cigarette. What's shocking about that image? Well, although he's seated next to the women, he seems to be involved in an animated conversation with someone not in the picture --- naked women kissing aren't even a distraction. I find that kind of cool.Lagrange has created a two-page homage to Newton that recalls one of my favorite Newton photographs. It's of June Newton, his wife. Is it posed? It doesn't seem to be --- it comes across as a picture he just happened to snap at a restaurant somewhere in Europe. He and June have finished the meal, but their plates haven't been cleared. She's smoking a cigarette. He asks her to open her blouse. She does. She's not wearing a bra. She inhales. And just then he takes...one picture. One very memorable picture.Lagrange's version is of a nude model, wearing pearls, alone at a table. It's not bad --- but the model is, to use his phrase, "an object of desire." That was, to be fair, true of most of Newton's work as well. That picture of June Newton, though, was much more; no doubt she's his wife and lover.But I can't be too hard on Marc Lagrange. He's young, and thus intent on making his name. Born in the Congo in 1957, he came late to photographer --- his first career was an engineer. Fashion photography was his way in; art photographer is his preference. So he looks for dramatic settings. In one of his most striking pictures, he abandons his Antwerp studio to shoot his favorite nude model --- think: Charlotte Rampling, with an even more expressive mouth --- on a limb in a dead tree in a barren Namibian desert. And, inevitably, he falls into cliché, as when he tries to shock by recreating the Last Supper with mostly nude models.If his vision is still overly influenced by Newton, Lagrange's craft is flawless. These 157 photographs are large and precise. Though their subject is often sex, they're not "dirty" enough for viewers who like art photography to be high-class porn. That is, there's a chilly European feeling here; the women are posing, not waiting for the party to begin. The lust seems....academic.Will Marc Lagrange break through to a style that, years from now, will make us describe some new photographer as "the next Lagrange"? Unclear. But of the photographers I can name who do this kind of work, he's the one I'll watch.