PORTRAITS NUDES FLOWERS:

Some readers will remember Vivanco for his previous book Dolce & Gabbana Uomini (2011) which celebrated “the beauty and vigour of the male body at its most perfect” that quickly went out of print. This new book is a retrospective of his first 15 years in the business and the title aptly sums up the contents.

His earlier photography was compared to the work of Herb Ritts and Bruce Weber and this influence is confirmed again with the nudes and portraits here. But Vivanco’s rapturously beautiful close-up images of flowers also draw another obvious comparison to Robert Mapplethorpe’s flower portraits.

The flower images are in colour, while the nudes and portraits are in black-and-white. These portraits are largely new edits and are different to the images published in various magazines. They are also a roll call of the younger generation of celebrities such as Henry Cavill, James Franco, Emma Watson, Natalie Dormer, Keira Knightley, Daniel Radcliffe, Laverne Cox, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Lana Del Rey, Sam Smith, Ricky Martin, Cristiano Ronaldo and David Gandy.

It’s extremely well priced at $70 for a very handsome hardcover coffee table book.

MORE: The Bookshop Darlinghurst specialises in gay and lesbian books. Phone (02) 9331 1103, email: info@thebookshop.com,au, visit thebookshop.com.au, or in person at 207 Oxford Street, Sydney.