I appreciate the comments and encouragement regarding this book review. I
finished the book up last night and began to think that maybe I was being
too harsh. It's not THAT BAD of a book. It's a given that I'm going to
highly praise the book for the writing and the quality of the photographs.
It's a book that is definitely on the upper end of the spectrum.
Where I am having kittens is in the specific selection of photographs and
how the couple had "worked the scene". The images lack the cohesive
story-telling that draws you from one page to the next. Instead of being a
"page turner" like a good spy novel, I observed how three different
individuals just gave up and just randomly opened the book to various pages
and then just handed the book back to me. I've only encountered that one
time before with an Art Wolfe book, which also suffers from the same
problem.
Is the book faulty? No, I don't think so. But I counted last night and I
think there are 175 photographs in this book! In all honesty, given the
repeated shots (different location, same basic composition and/or effects),
I'd have been just as happy if the book had 100 less pictures. This is
definitely THE book of its subject/genre especially from a historical
perspective, but I feel like it's a slog to get through. I found myself
wishing for a "Cliffs Notes" booklet to help me with the book report. Of
the 175 photographs, to be brutally honest, I think there were only 20
different pictures repeated over and over and over again. Granted, they were
REALLY GOOD pictures, but as much as I like Pizza, I can't eat it three
meals a day, seven days a week.
(obligatory pizza content)
As a "coffee table book", it's actually quite fine. It's a book a guest
could pick up, leaf through a few random pages while munching on hors
d'oevres and go away satisfied.
Whew.
Now all I have to do is gather my posts on this, merge them together, add
names and publish. :)
AG
--
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/
|