During 1929, Herbert List began to photograph the young men he knew and traveled with throughout Greece, Italy, and Germany. He captured the innocence of their beauty and physical prowess before Hitler's politics commandeered those qualities for his own bleak purposes. The relationship, in List's mind, of these young men to Greek statues is emphasized by the occasional juxtaposition of nude or semi-nude figures with fragments of Greek statues.

This large-format book contains photos of young men taken from the 1920s through to the 1950s. They are amazingly fresh and vibrant, sexy, modern yet classical, and show this great photographer's vision and love of the male form. The models are for the most part aged between 18-25.

It's amazing to think that even some of the oldest of these images are so fresh that they may have come from the 1980s. Sometimes the clothing (of which there is little) shows the period in which the pictures were made but most of them have a tingling vibrancy and liveliness that belies their age. It's odd to think that the beautiful naked youth from the 1920s is probably no longer alive, yet his beauty and grace have, by List's skill, transcended time and we get the chance to wonder about how he lived; what he made of his life; and to ponder on how youthful beauty, though transient, can last forever.

This book is a truly wonderful addition to the bookshelf of any connoiseur of both early photography and male beauty.