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Photos: Black & White Men Black & White Men: Images by James Spada; Pond Street Press; 96 pages; $35. James Spada is best-known as the author of 1979's The Spada Report: The Newest Survey of Gay Male Sexuality (I have still a copy) and the biographer of Barbra Streisand, Bette Davis, Princess Grace and other personalities. 
Black & White Men: Images by James Spada is a pleasant surprise and
revelation to those of us who knew Spada as a writer. In fact, Spada the
photographer has had three exhibitions during the past two years, most
notably at the "prestigious" Gallery One at the New England School of
Photography in Boston.
"Photographing people is very much like writing about them," notes Spada, "except that I'm creating the portraits with light rather than words." Black & White Men--the title refers to the color of the photos, not the race of the models--features 60 of Spada's favorite images, most of them taken in Spada's Brookline home and studio.
The black and white men in Black & White Men are great eye candy, and their presence is the reason why most people will buy the book. Photographer Nick Johnson, in his "Foreword", compares Spada's photos to Michelangelo's David and notes that "In these photographs one sees an idealized male form, muscles rippling, skin as smooth as marble, beautifully rendered through a masterful use of light and photographic technique." Spada himself adds that "Light is as much a subject for me as the models. Some of these men emerge from darkness into the light. Others are bathed in it, seeming to take comfort from it. Still others respond to the illumination with pride, showing off their beauty to it as they would to a lover."
Black and White Men is a wonderful book, and an essential text for anyone who appreciates the male art form. It opens a new chapter in the professional life of one our favorite and most enduring artists. Hopefully, the emergence of James Spada the photographer does not mean the end of James Spada the writer. Perhaps Spada will soon find a way to combine his two talents.
Brief View: For the past decade afficionados of the young male figure
have turned to Freshmen magazine for their monthly fix of beautiful young
men. Freshmen 10: Tenth Anniversary Collector's Edition ($12.95) celebrates
this milestone in the history of Freshmen as well as the guys who made this
magazine such a hit. Along with a capsule history of Freshmen, this "10-year
retrospective" features each and every Freshmen cover as well as "hundreds of
never-before-published images" of beautiful, 18- to 24-year old men. Lukas
Ridgeston fans take note: Freshmen 10 has an exclusive interview with--and
some delicious photos of--"The most handsome boy of all".
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Not being an art critic myself--though I got an A in Art Appreciation class at Miami-Dade
Community College--I wasn't too concerned with Spada's light and shadows.
It was Spada's "idealized male forms" that caught and held my eye. (One of
Spada's models is also his lover; he's the handsome African-American on the
back cover of the book.)
© 1997-2000 BEI