David Thorpe, Pierre Le Poste - Rude Food - 1981

David Thorpe – Rude Food
Text by Pierre Le Poste
Macmillan London, 1981
First edition Macmillan

British photobook once fairly scarce, built around the association between food, sensuality and erotism.

David Thorpe stages foods, naked bodies and culinary accessories in a sequence of photographic compositions that are deliberately provocative, humorous and very characteristic of late 1970s and early 1980s British graphic culture.

Oysters laid on the body, fruits, desserts, fish and other foods are playfully manipulated in images that mix erotic photography, food photography, humor and graphic design.

This copy corresponds to the edition published by Macmillan London in 1981, whose colophon bears the phrase “First published 1981 by Macmillan London Limited”.

The book is today especially interesting as a testimony of this period when British advertising and editorial photography openly toyed with the codes of pop design, erotica and post-1970 visual culture.

The presented photographs clearly show the book’s highly graphic design, with many full-page and double-page compositions.

Condition: very good overall for a 1981 work. Interior clean and well preserved. The cover shows some light age- and handling-related marks, visible in the photographs. Complete copy. The photos are an integral part of the description.

An unusual photobook that has become somewhat rare, particularly suited to a collection focusing on erotic photography, British design, culinary photography, or alternative publications from the 1970s–1980s.

Will be shipped in a careful, sturdy, and trackable package.