Documentary-Collection

Rod McRae is a children's book illustrator and gay art photographer who lives in Sydney, Australia. "Camp Cove" is a collection of his photographic efforts -- 60 black-and-white, sepia-tinted, and color photographs of men he found in and around Sydney. Some of the images are Polaroid transfers created for a show in 1992, but others are hand-tinted images created specifically for this book.

McRae's technical skills cannot be faulted in the slightest. His composition is especially interesting. The first image in the book shows a naked man from the neck down, standing between two stuffed kangaroos. The image is fascinating for its unique Aussie sensibility, but also for its wonderfully strong erotic sensibility. The roos -- their paws and arms thrust forward, their neo-phallic heads, standing on their toes in erect posture -- mimic the latent sexuality of the man's own penis, which is slightly tumescent. It is this unique "Sydney sensibility" that McRae says he aims to capture in his work.

McRae comes closest to achieving his goals in the sepia prints. Although some of the images are strained -- too obviously posed with plants, too painfully self-conscious -- others have a strong vitality and ease that draw the viewer in and make you part of the photograph.

The color images are less successful, partially because McRae doesn't seem to have developed much of a philosophy of color. Perhaps it is that he hasn't worked much in color, which leads him to focus more on the model and the purpose of the image than on its technical aspects. The color photos also seem more thematic (focusing on wings, flight, and angels), but less interesting because the thematic nature of them seems to overwhelm the models rather than accentuate their innate "Sydney-ness."

Similarly, his outdoor photographs are not nearly as successful as his studio images. Here, the models are more of an afterthought. In some images the models lay on rocks as if "scattered" like stones. In others, the printing process merges the shape of the men's bodies with the shape of the rocks.

One is left with the sense that, despite McRae's goal of focusing on the men of Sydney and what makes them part of Sydney rather than Los Angeles (or Bondi or Manly Beach, for that matter), McRae has fallen a bit short. His focus seems to be on Sydney-ness, rather than on the men of Sydney. Often, the models seem lost, covered up, and obscured by the other elements of the photos. As art this works (and doesn't). As nude male art, it seems to fail more than succeed.

"Rod McRae is a gay photo artist who scores a hit with gay town Sydney, a fun place with fab lookers for sure. Rod lenses all these guys with his fluid creations: you-and-me guys, hot boardwalk strutters, feral and sexy, posing in Rod's fantastic studio or some fearsomely beautiful outdoor place like Camp Cove.

I really enjoyed this book. I've always wanted to know a little more about Caroline Astor, and this book is a very good reference source. It gives a vivid view of the time and brings much of it to life. I only have one problem with the book, and it is a large and glaring error. The author states that Alva Vanderbilt's house in Newport was nondescript. Her house(next door to Mrs. Astor's)is Marble House, one of the most opulent houses in all of Newport, closely followed by her other house, Belcourt Castle. This woman was often described as being "knee deep in mortar". It makes me doubt the rest of the authors research, although I did enjoy the book.

This is a lovely and attractive book with wonderful pictures and even a listing of the complete "400." I highly recommend it to anyone who loves the Gilded Age in NYC. Also, you might want to join this yahoo group to discuss it further: [URL]

This is a beautifully done book of great photographs. As much as I liked the quality, I would have to tone down my excitement by the content. The pictures shown in this book are of general concern popular of telling the Civil War in a basic, simple format. The photograph qualities are much better than I have saw in other books although I have seen a majority of them. This book offers nothing new in the line of Gardner's work and is basically a 'greatest hits' of his work that followed the eastern theatre from the Union perpective. Unfortunately Gardner never took pictures of dead Union soldiers or captured Union losses that much. Gardner had a knack for enhancing pictures by using props such as moving a dead body to different locations or using weapons, canteens, etc. to be placed in the photograph. By today's standards it is hard to imagine doctored photographs in a war-like setting but that was a part of Gardner's work.

His work is a very vital element to telling the hidden, horrid truths of the Civil War although this book offers very little in providing pictures not typically shown. I would have loved to see different work instead of these classic photos commonly used in history books. The book is of great quality and each photograph offers an explanation of the reasons the photo was taken or done. I recommend the book to people who really do not have an understanding of Civil War photography or common knowledge of the war itself. For the veteran enthusiast, it may seem very redundant and a perfect coffee table book. I can't recommend it to the advanced historian as this book may bore you after the initial curiosity fades.

If you have a Civil War buff in your family who favors the Union side, this book is a wonderful choice for a gift.

I have read extensively about the Civil War for over 40 years. Many parts of the war that occurred between the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia have always been confusing to me. Words just cannot fully capture for me the topography, the practices, and the grimness of the confrontations.

As someone who loves books of fine photography, Mr. Gardner's images immediately drew my attention. Although done over 135 years ago, they are masterpieces of the photographic art. What a nice surprise it was to find that each image came with a mini-essay that explained the significance of the place, explained more about the details of what was portrayed, and extended the observations to other situations and circumstances in the Civil War. As much as I liked the photographs, I found the mini-essays even better. The combination was incomparable!

One of the great challenges in this geographic area (northern Virginia, southern Maryland, and southern Pennsylvania) was brought by the many rivers that had to be crossed. Mr. Gardner did a fine job of showing what the bridges and fords looked like in normal times, what the same crossings looked like without their normal structures in place, and how engineers used pontoon boats, pontoon bridges, and built temporary structures to fill in for exploded gaps. A lot of the infrastructure of war is captured, from barricades and cannons to sniping positions to wagon camps. There are even examples of "Quaker guns" which were not really guns at all, but simulated guns to keep the enemy away from positions where no troops could be spared to defend them.

Although almost all of the images are of peaceful activities to support the battlefields, the images that show dead soldiers become all the more powerful in the context of the normalcy. You will never forget the photographs from Gettysburg. They could be an advertisement for opposing war.

For modern viewers, the casualness with which the images mix African-Americans and Caucasians on the Union side belies the racism that partially led to the war itself.

Mr. Gardner was the official photographer of the Army of the Potomac during most of the Civil War. He had come to the United States from Scotland at the invitation of famed Civil War photographer, Mr. Matthew Brady, in 1855 but left Mr. Brady's employ when Mr. Brady denied Mr. Gardner publication credit for his work. The very difficult photographic conditions are well described in the book, which will make you appreciate the accomplished results all the more.

A version of this book was originally published in 1866. The current edition has digitally reproduced the images in a smaller size than the original. That is a shame because in many cases Mr. Gardner has captured sweeping panoramas and depth of field that would reward being seen in larger size. However, the details are not obscured in most cases. The details simply seem too small. Naturally, the purchaser gets a benefit from this because it means that the book is less costly than it would otherwise have been. My judgment is that publishers should use the size that the photographer intended the images to be published in. I graded the book down one star for this flaw.

Where would people in the future benefit from photographs and detailed notes about you and your family . . . and you and your work? When can you start preparing the photographs and notes?

This is a rather pedestrian collection of photos and text covering a century of Irish history that contains some of the most riveting events in an Irish saga never lacking for riveting events. Some of the photos are interesting in that they are unfamiliar to a student of that period of Irish history but the selection overall seemed to me rather dull and not as absorbing as it could or should have been.

The collaborative effort of Sean Sexton (who has been collecting historic photographs of Ireland for thirty years) and Irish historian Christine Kinealy, The Irish: A Photohistory 1840-1940 is an incredible compendium of black-and-white period photographs showcasing Irish individuals, Irish culture, and Irish history. The first photographs are from 1840, a year after the discovery of the photographic process became publicized. These still images vividly capture the desperation and death that marked the Great Potato Famine, severe struggles over land rights and politics, the impact of modernization, and much more, up through approximately 1939 and the beginning of the second world war. The text presents an informative and straightforward account of Irish history, and lends the insight of scholarship to the vividly emotional photographs. The Irish is very highly recommended for personal and community library collections.

For those who've been Zep fans for years, many (if not most) of the pictures contained in this book have been seen before now. That's part of why this book seems, to me, to be a rushed release just before the gift giving season. Another reason is that some of the better pix, such as one of the close-ups of Jimmy and Robert on Ceasar's Chariot looking together at something with Jimmy propping a J.D. bottle on his right knee while gesturing as Robert observes, Jimmy's face in the 2-page picture is split in half by the book's spine! I have to spread the book flat just to get a glimpse of both people in the picture, which is unfortunate because the picture's a classic. Yet another reason why this seems rushed is that some of the dates for pictures are wrong, like 2/12/75 in NYC being mistakenly labelled as 2/25/75 in NYC, and even Dave Lewis's text has errors in it. Not a 5 star book by any stretch, and not a 2 because of what's in it. A 3 because of the reasonable price, but definitely not a must have in my humble opinion.

Mr Prestone does a great job here in compiling the magic moments of this legend band. The pictures are amazing and the quality is very good. If you are a Led Zeppelin fan - this book is for you,

The most complete collection of this wonderful photographer's work available, this book has unfortunately been printed so poorly that the qualities of most of the photographs is lost. The photos look muddy and suffer from low contrast. The essay, however, is excellent, and worth reading for an introduction to Bravo's life and work. The Aperture books of Bravo's work, while offering far fewer photographs, have much better reproduction.

This small book contains wonderfully printed samples of a great photographer's work. Any selection not done by the artist reflects a certain bias, but this collection has a very neutral one, and the book flows quite nicely. Coleman's essay at the beginning has been printed numerous times and reflects a cultural bias that glorifies Bravo as a "Mexican" photographer rather than as one without the qualifier.

I was disappointed by this book. The three hundred pre-1940 postcards should have made the buildings of Big Apple come alive, instead so many of the cards are shown too large and this emphasizes the flaws in the original printing of these mass produced postcards. However you could use this book as a taster for the much more interesting 'American Architecture: a vintage postcard collection' by Luc Van Malderen. This has over six hundred postcards with 188 devoted to New York city, all beautifully printed with detailed captions about each building.

Both books show images of a city that must have been awe-inspiring to the people who bought these postcards and mailed them to the folks back home.

Not Only Buildings New York is an outstanding collection of 300 images of New York assembled from the postcard collection by architect Italo Rota. These hand-painted cards depicted New York City's major attractions, and Not Only Buildings New York offers the outstanding cards in all their glory in a fine keepsake edition any New York fan will relish.

This book is a photojournal of trips that Brecelj took around the world in the 1990s, from South America to the Middle East, from Russia to Papua New Guinea. The photos are not presented in chronological or topical order. They don't tell a coherent story. Instead, Brecelj was seeking to create interesting juxtapositions by pairing photos on facing pages that may have some underlying aspect in common.

Brecelj is a member of the art-world, and many of his Western city photos reflect this, as they mostly depict artists in their daily surroundings, doing ordinary things like washing their feet after jogging. Pictures from Russia capture some of the desolation and ruin left by the collapse of the economic system. In Indian, Brecelj was fascinated by funerary and post-funerary scenes on the Ganges. Jerusalem and the various threads of religious life there are also well represented in the book, as is the traditional culture of Oman. At the end of the book is a short section with thumbnails of each picture and a sentence or two providing more information about why Brecelj took the picture or what he sees in it.

This book would probably be most interesting for artists and photography buffs. It may also have some interest for travel readers.

This book is one of my favorite photography books in my collection. My reasoning is simple, you pick up the book and the pictures are so varied and random that no matter what page you turn to you are pleased. The book offers so much variety; each picture evokes a different emotion and holds a different story. The angles and colors used are stunning and it's coffee table worth is simply invaluable. I give it 5 Stars!

"Surfers" is a gritty and compelling photographic study of the sport and lifestyle of surfing. In 100 duotone and 11 four-color photos, Patrick Cariou captures surfers of many ages, races, nationalities. Indeed, he traveled the globe for these pictures. Whether in Long Island or Easter Island, Peru or Polynesia, the photographer searched for the world's greatest surfers and surf-legends. Cariou is especially talented at shooting natural-light portraits of these men and women. There's a relaxed naturalness about his subjects, which is a testament to the trust he gained from them. Also, Cariou, in his best shots (e.g., "Buttons Kaluhiokalani, North Shore," "Local, Biarritz," and "Laird Hamilton, Maui"), captures the surfers' eyes so effectively that they speak volumes about these wave-riders. Also, Cariou's images are refreshingly unromatic. There is an earthy, every-day quality to these pictures. I only wish the photos had been done in full color. Not only would the reproductions have been clearer, but the pictures' impact would have been far greater than they are. Still, surfers of all ranks will enjoy this book.

When I first leafed through the pages of this collection, I was struck by the numerous photographs of beautifully aging men. Upon further inspection it became clear that other subjects are well represented. But I would have to say that for me, the true impact of this book is in its portraiture of strong, active, sun-baked men of advancing years. Men whose bearing and visage evince a serene vitality as well as a timeless understanding of fate.

This is of course a book about surfing and there are a number of wonderful photographs that well capture the spirit, peril and exhilaration of the sport. And a bit of text at the beginning of the book does address itself to surfing history and culture. But it is the portraits of the rugged and weathered people who live their lives by the sea that makes this such a compelling collection.

Surfers is a wonderfully understated portfolio of mostly black and white photographs of individuals who are persuing their dreams in an unconventional yet highly inspired fashion. Cariou, a gifted master of his craft, captures the freedom and joy inherent to their journey brilliantly. His work deserves a much wider audience than just those with an abiding interest in surfing.

Heisey takes us along on his flights over the Sonoran Desert -- in both word and picture. As a pilot, I could relate to the wonder of flying, the beauty seen from that perspective and some of the fears associated with flying low and slow.

For the non-pilot, this is a problematic book. The pictures are certainly beautiful, but -- isn't there always a "but" -- there is little contex and often only a weak connection to the text. Each of the text pieces seemed a separate, stand-alone account. The same for the pictures.

Lacking context or connection, all you can say is "that's pretty" or "interesting". But, where's the story?

Heisey talks of learning about and developing an appreciation for the desert before it disappears beneath our ever expanding suburban developments, highways, reservoirs and golf courses. He fails to tell the story of the desert. What is it that we need to learn? Why the particular selection we have here?

The the only thing that makes this collection of photos and journal entries a book is the fact that they happen to be glued between two covers.

I have to admit, first of all, that Adriel Heisey and I were best friends in high school--in fact my oldest son's middle name is Adriel. So, as I read "Under the Sun" I had the advantage of knowing the author. Adriel has always been a wonderful writer. His descriptions of the Sonoran Desert and his flights over it made me feel as if I was along for the ride: "...the plane is balanced and steady; the air like silk. I strap the control stick to my knee and lift both hands up into the airstream as if I'm palpating the flanks of an invisible creature. The stuff that lets me fly rushes softly through my fingers. I am in the mystery." Yes, he is in the mystery and through his engaging prose and photographs, we can be "in the mystery" too.