Outback Bushmen

Making a statement such as 'the finest of the Outback Series' is like praising gold within gold. Australian photographer Paul Freeman has managed to establish himself at the epitome of artists capturing the essence of maleness. He has published eight monographs whose focus is the male nude, and despite the fact that they are all based on models from around the same area, each book is refreshingly new in its approach. Freeman opens his book with an 'enhanced' poem -AFTER ALL by Henry Lawson (1867 — 1922) — that sings of the bushmen of the outback region. And that sets the very sophisticated tone for this large sized book of full color, black and white and sepia toned images. The quality of composition, lighting, mood and variation in spacing the images (some are close-ups of heads while most are full figures), in settings for the most part outdoors make these, technically, some of the most perfectly executed photographs in any collection. But on to the content.

OUTBACK BUSHMEN images the most masculine, perfectly/naturally built, extraordinarily handsome and sensual men ever gathered! These men are au naturel , usually unshaven or bearded, always avoiding the shaved bodies that have become so popular in other male photographic studies — these men are MEN, mostly fully nude, at times showing the mud and dirt of a day's work, figures in repose, asleep, intensely making erotic eye contact with the viewer, being playful with each other, responding to the beauty of the Outback country — perhaps the same type of raw landscape that once graced the West in America!