Vida Loca

this book is amazing

The internet is awash with pretty good images of somehow odd-looking scenes, places, locations. And the images would be the stuff of WOW! but something is missing. Hmm. Fabio Borquez seems to catalog such scenes as he encounters them. And he returns to them with a nude model in tow. But even more remarkable than her exquisite nakedness is her attitude, worn visibly, as boldly as a breastplate of campaign ribbons.Do the math: (Weird scene) + (nude beauty) + Attitude^2 + Borquez = WOW!OK, OK, so I made all that up about how Borquez put Vida Loca together. I have no clue if he catalogs especially strange scenes or places, but he sure has a bunch of them in this book. What I DIDN'T make up is the part about the ATTITUDES. With only a couple of exceptions, the images overflow with some kind of attitude pouring out of the model. Occasionally it's allure, the come-hither beckoning of "men's magazines." More often though, it's rather akin to belligerence, or disdain, or WTF?, or annoyance, or once in a while just deadpan.Most important, in my view, is that Borquez and the model make the attitude and the nakedness and the scene work. The pictures are sexy puzzles, chili-pepper gummy candies, edges crumpled with ambiguity."Vida Loca" is fun, contemporary glamor/nude and Borquez is clearly ambitious in his reach for something original in over-farmed ground.

This is an interesting book. Fabio Boroquez is always an exciting photographer to watch, but very few artists are able to modify their inner vision and create truly original bodies of work. Boroquez's first book, Erotic Wonderland (also by Edition Skylight, 2011) was a work of amazing beauty and artistry. The nude was it's essence, its message. But in Vida Loca, Boroquez goes deeper, and incorporates more flair. And he creates a much more dramatic version of the female nude. It's one saturated with vampish ecstasy and modelesque bravado.Vida Loca is an exploration of the femme fatale in all its lovely, sexy, naked glory. And Boroquez is especially astute at capturing this alluring mystique. For those who like their nudes with a bit of mystery, Vida Loca is the perfect book in which to lose oneself.