Eric Kroll's Beauty Parade

Just gorgeous. Weird and disturbing at times, and beautiful and sexy and alluring and plain HOT! This is a wonderful picture book of sexy women - if you want that, you won't be disappointed in this book.

After his success with "Fetish Girls," Eric Kroll found himself in a new position. Previously he had thought of himself as a photographer who forever pushed the boundaries of art photography's subject matter. Unexpectedly, he found himself sharing the limelight with other `fringe' photographers such as Cindy Sherman, Nan Golden and Richard Kern. These and many others had also been waiting for taboos to come down. No sooner did Kroll become popular for being avant-garde then he found his work being accepted as mainstream.Fortunately for us, Kroll did not decide to rest on his laurels. During the next few years he remained active. Gradually, Kroll pulled away from `fashion' fetish work and started to work harder at exploring the sexual nature of the fetishist's urges and dreams. Behind the allure of his models lay a rawer, stronger layer of desire. Now the viewer often must question his or her own sexuality and fantasy. From this quest arose the work that went into "Beauty Parade," which is a natural extension and outgrowth of "Fetish Girls." Not only has Kroll's work become more refined and controlled, it also shows development at the technical level. His focus seems sharper and his graphic sense strong, but he has also gained a fine sense of tension and movement. This enhances the impact of many of the already strong images. Kroll flirts with pornography but never quite crosses the line. In fact, some of the most sexual images contain little nudity. This is not a volume for the easily shocked or overly judgmental. The fetish focus often creates overtones of sexual practice gone slightly awry. Kroll invites us to look into the darker beauties of human desire and make our own decisions about what is art, what is us, and what is not.

I think Mr. Kroll displays his amazing ability to capture every woman's beauty with imagination, style and eroticism. What I enjoyed most about Beauty Parade is his concentration on bringing out what the woman in the picture has seemingly always wanted express, but never did until Eric brought it out of her. It truly is a "coffee table" book and a conversation piece. Every time I look at it, I see things I didn't see the last time. I highly recommend this book!

Having gone cover to cover several times, I can say that this book is an authoritative study of all that fetish photography should be. The photography is stunning, the context is both stimulating as well as provocative. I would recommend this book be added to the collections of all devotees of erotic photography. Eric captures the flavour of the genre in a most compeling manner. 'cudos to Eric Kroll for a masterwork!

I have know Kroll for years - and he always delights me with his imagery and sense of humor. Beauty Parade is well printed, well designed and a bargain that anyone interested in photo erotica needs to have on their book shelf.