I love photography (looking at it, not engaging in it as a pasttime), and I'm a sucker for most things related to pop culture. Trachtenberg combines both of those things in a way that I adored.

I love the ways his pictures relate to the subjects in them, whether as the personas the public sees them as, or specific projects he's shooting them for. There's a lot of humor, but the photography is also just really clean and beautiful. I took a lot of pictures of pictures contained within this book just so I can go back and look at them whenever I want.

I appreciated him sticking with a theme for this book, showing men (mostly American) in such a variety of poses and themes, exemplifying the many, many levels of "masculinity" and what it means to be a man. Some of my favorite pictures were not even of people I liked or knew in some cases, but the story they told was one I loved. I overlooked my strong dislike of Jimmy Fallon, for example, to admire a picture of him in Victoria's Secret Angel wings, standing on top of a building and looking over NYC. It is a beautiful and powerful picture. A series of photos of Scott Eastwood are fun, and funny, and remind you once again just how damn good-looking he is. There's a great picture of Ryan Seacrest in his signature suit, beginning to fade out digitally.

Trachtenberg takes non-traditionally "hot" men and plays with the idea of them as sex symbols in a playful way. He also takes those more traditional sex symbols and lets them play, showing them in a more humorous light, rather than just focusing on their looks and masculinity.

I really enjoyed paging through this book looking at the pictures and reading some of the anecdotes that shared where the photo ideas came from. It was fun, and I can definitely see myself purchasing this book in the future to have on display on my currently non-existent nice coffee table.