I couldn't resist ordering this collection of dark eye-candy! I love Barker, dark poetry, erotic art. Love the fact, also that Barker and Armstrong, lovers, teamed up to do this project.

From the back cover:

In the dark recesses of the human imagination lies an erotic potential that is rarely explored. Rare Flesh dares to tread into this taboo territory, pairing stunning male nude photographs by David E. Armstrong with provocative poetry and prose by Clive Barker. Dozens of models acto out primal fantasies, and the resulting images show us the male form as we've never seen it before. The experience is visceral, vacillating between erotic arousal, unbridled horror, and raw beauty. With themes of love, betrayal, loneliness, and redemption, Rare Flesh stimulates the mind as well as the body.

Stunning. Breathtaking. The photography was both beautiful and disturbing, primally erotic and touching. You really get a feel of our ancient, primal urges and desires while looking through the photos. The poetry was just what you would expect of Clive Barker, great stuff! Sorry, this is being added to my personal collection, not available for trade, etc.

I have re-read this, and enjoyed it yet again. Still think the photography is stunningly disturbing. I have stacks of photography books that tend to simply gather dust on my shelves instead of being enjoyed, so I am going to let this one go.

Sending to Gorydetails as a bonus surprise as her LGBT Bookbox returns to her. I hope you enjoy the book!

Wow! I was stunned to find this beautiful book in the box - a magnificent collaboration, with Armstrong's images and Barker's text. Thanks so much; I'm going to enjoy this!

Later: Intriguing mix of art styles here, from blurry, candid-style shots to highly elaborate ones - and with the subjects ranging from casually sexual to stylized and fetishistic. (The glossy-black-horned-figure images are especially striking.) Some of the photographs are accompanied by prose poems by Barker, including one that goes "Youth inhabits his face / like a hermit crab its borrowed shell. / He will outgrow his shelter sooner than he thinks. / Only then will he know what it is to be naked." That one shows a sleek-haired young man in a tuxedo - but the following pages reveal that his pants are down around his ankles. And, yes, this image of a half-naked man seem more "nude" in many respects than the completely-naked men on other pages!

Beautiful, sexy, dramatic, savage - and, here and there, rather funny - images; I enjoyed them. (And I admit I got a bit sniffly over the elegy to Armstrong and Barker's late dog Bart, at the end of the book...)

I'm sending this to BCer Firegirl in Virginia. Enjoy!

Ooops! Forgot to make a journal entry for this one. Looks fantastic, thank you!!

I enjoyed looking through this quite a lot. I sent it to a friend out in Southern California some weeks ago; he's my go-to for nude male art books. He enjoys using them for figure work. He let me know it arrived safely.