Documentary-Collection

If you love pictures and you love dance, this book is for you! Give it a try...

To behold the captured image and let your mind reveal what it may: this is the gift of a book of pictures. These photos are so full of mystery and revealation that they need nothing more than to be shown. The words can be a poem in themselves---someone's personal reaction which some may enjoy the sharing of. I, for one, prefer the power of the images themselves. Linde Waidhofer eloquenly gives us all we need to take a powerful journey through her images.

This book is a great collection of Nobuyoshi Araki's Photographs. I believe this book is worth buying if you are the die-hard fans of Araki or you like his very special/alternative representation style to present the Japanese culture.

The Eiffel Tower has had a digital clock mounted on it for several years which has been counting down to January 1st 2000. Each day the counter is reduced by one until at midnight December 31st 1999 the new Millenium is launched (yes I know it's all in how you count it) The Fireworks display that was started as this countdown switched from days, to hours, to minutes, to seconds and finally to the moment of the turning of the century was the most fabulous of all the celebrations held world wide. And I and my Son were there to witness it. Directly across the Seine from La Tour Eiffel.

This book, written in both French and English is a photo record of the last year of that countdown. The text is charming and informative (and could help you learn some Francais)the photographs of this most photographed of French Monuments are original and imaginative. Each photo of La Tour Eiffel has the digital clock displayed so the day/date is fixed.

If you are a Francophile or just a lover of the Tower, this is a wonderful book.

Ultimately, Viewing Olmsted is a savvy and thought-provoking, yet diminutive picture book. The collaboration of three brilliant photographers under the sponsorship of the Canadian Centre for Architecture, it guides the reader down three highly personal, present day tours of legendary parks designed by Olmsted, the patron saint of American landscape architecture. Happily, though, its readers are left to intellectually fend for themselves as to meanings or implications of Frederick Olmsted's work, genius, and lasting influence as the man who designed such famous spaces as Central Park. Academics and artists will appreciate the fresh visual perspectives offered on the man's legacy, the sometimes soothing, sometimes haunting nature-by-design retreats for the urban soul. Those with more than a passing interest in the ways in which man interacts with his 'natural' surroundings will appreciate vistas evocative of place rather than time. To the authors' credit, the book raises more questions than it answers, and is of a scale to fit neatly into a travel case. Far from definitive, the book is, nevertheless, a must have for architects, landscape architects, photographers, and Olmsted aficionados.

Whether you like the era of the 1930's or not, this book will give you a feel for the time and the places traveled by photographer Walker Evans. The photographs are superb technically, but it is the subjects that will remain in your memory long after you close the book. Evans's subjects are captured with dignity, and although you might be inclined to feel sorry for them, you are inevitably touched by the strength of these people. The book is a good introduction to Walker Evans and his feel for the human condition. His photographs remind me alot of Dorothea Lange's.

Maybe I missed something. The pictures are beautiful, and they are supposed to be an attempt to capture the essence of young women on the cusp of becoming adults. What I got was pictures of young women-- missed the whole "becoming" thing. I could just be thick, but this one just passed me by devoid of any emotion.

I give Sally Mann a thumbs up for capturing her beautiful children when they were young, being what they are: beloved children. How fast we grow and turn into adults!
As I studied each page my memory was jogged several times of my childhood in southern Georgia. Humid sunny days and muggy rainy evenings; I couldn't wait to strip what little bit of cloths I wore and play outside in the rain or in the woods. I never gave it a second thought being nude. And apparently neither did my parents. Needless to say Sally Mann and her beloved childern are dear to my heart. Thanks for bring back so many innocent fond memories.
I recommend this book if you have an open mind and love children for what they are.

I found this book to be a wonderful experience. Sally Mann has shown so many different 12-year-olds in her hometown of Lexington, Va, and she has captured their stories and what makes each girl so unique. I loved this book and found that some of the photographs, especially "Doll House" reminded me of myself "At Twelve".

The photographs in this book are big, glossy, cinematic...and ultimately dull and derivative. Yet those who hold this type of photography as an example of what is wrong with all contemporary art perhaps fail to understand that there is a good deal of photography mining the same themes, but with much more verve and far less self-conscious pretension. One can find mystery and surrealistic undercurrents in the most mundane of contemporary settings...one can depict such settings as dystopian...but there are photographers like Philip Lorca di Corcia and Paul Graham who have done so in recent monographs with execution that is ostensibly simpler, yet riskier and far more bracing in its results.

Crewdson is a talented professional whose influence in the contemporary photography world and in academia is significant, but in this book he commits so many sins it's tough to know where to start in pinpointing what makes this book so leaden. Ultimately, it's the sheer overstatement in presentation that seems to turn the images into white elephant art (to borrow a term from film critic Manny Farber)...an overstated style that evokes the dreadful excesses of the film American Beauty and David Lynch's most self-indulgent moments.

And since Crewdson works in the realm of still images and not in film or video, he doesn't have the benefit of motion, nuanced characters or any reasonable narrative (unlike a show like Six Feet Under, for example) to keep the images from landing with a huge thud. Though there are some "Recurring Themes" in the images (which seem to involve pregnancy and mounds of flowers), whatever narrative or mystery these may imply is simply not worth considering while being assaulted with the sheer excess of everything. The expressions on the faces of the many mannequins in the book have all the subtlety of silent movie acting, except silent movies (and silent movie actors) on the whole are far more poetic in their projection than the sorry models Crewdson chooses to present to the viewer. Crewdson's dramatic lighting of his stillborn subjects only accentuates the shallowness of his concepts.

If you have a friend that loves the scene from the film "American Beauty" where Annette Benning listens to self-help tapes at an ear-deafening volume, if they consider this a solid critique of contemporary American life, Crewdson's equally vacuous volume will make the perfect coffee-table gift. To those looking for more craft, more subtlety, more depth, diCorcia's "A Storybook Life" or Paul Graham's "American Night", or even work from Crewdson's female disciples from Yale like Justine Kurland (to name just a few) -- these explore similar themes with far more rewarding results.

This book is an incredible documentation of community-based art. The artist, Gregory Crewdson, worked over years to unite a small town in the hills of Massachusetts to create art.
It's inspiring to find out that the people of the town (Lee) not only donate their houses for photo shoots, but they also block off streets and are subjects of the photographs.
The photos in the book are accompanied by text written by Rick Moody. The text is interesting, touching on the psychological forces compelling Crewdson to create art--but the real treat is in the photographs themselves.
The work is produced far away from the mainstream art world of Chelsea, yet it has made a great impression there.

Crewdson uses elements of documentary photography and cinema to give authority and narrative to intricately and flawlessly constructed, amazingly artificial scenes. To criticize these photographs for being "forced" or lacking sincerity is like criticising a race car driver for driving too fast. The amount of effort and detail that went into constructing these realities is the entire point of this book. A photograph doesn't have to refer to something that is "real" in order to be valuable, compelling, and beautiful in its own right. This is an excellent, highly recomended book.

I'll give 3 stars to this book for the hidden gems in it, and for the expansive collection of photographs. However, National Geographic seems to have chosen quantity over quanlity. I was genuinely surprised at the lack of pictures even worth being denoted 'good'. Some of them looked like the sort of thing the average person takes on a short vacation.
Most photos in it are across both pages, and the large size makes almost every picture look grainy. It also makes the book seem like there are more pictures than there really are. The truly wonderful photos are pretty much all ones we've seen printed elsewhere, multiple times, like a humpback whale with seabirds about it by Flip Nicklin. I've even seen that one used in advertisements.
Don't waste your money or time buying this book; there are others of much better quality and lower pricing. In short they are NOT the "Greatest" photographs.

More than the articles, when I think of National Geographic Magazine I think of the photography. I have long considered the photography in National Geographic to be some of the best magazine photography that I have seen. The images are typically stunning and give me a visual idea of locations that I would not even be able to imagine. I cannot speak to the technical craft of photography because I know nothing about that. Since I also have not looked at other National Geographic Collections, I cannot speak as to what is included in those collections and how it compares to this collection. What I can speak to is what I thought about this particular collection.

Bottom line: I liked it. Since I am not a regular reader of National Geographic, all of the pictures were new to me. This is an excellent collection of photography for someone who just wants to look at some wonderful pictures. One can look through the book casually and enjoy the pictures (as I did), or one can study the pictures and see exactly what is going on and find nuance within the pictures. Either way works. Good pictures, good book, and it was an enjoyable time looking at some of the best of National Geographic's photography.

It never goes wrong to buy photo collections of national geographic. Hardcover, 500 pages, high-quality pictures, at price $30. What do you expect?

The book is in high quality, in terms of binding and printing. The pictures included are also very interesting. About 250 photos are included, and usaully, one photo will cover too pages.

But I have a complaint. Most photos are not the original. The editor cut the edges, and only show the "main" part of the photo in this book. This causes two problems. First, I believe that when the photographer took the photo, he/she has special purpose for framing. Different photographer has different style. But now, the style of all photos look consistent!!! I want to see the original photos. Second, since a portion of the orignal photo is enlarged so much, the color is not as vivid as before.

But anyway, despite the drawback, it is definitely worth buying this book.

I saw a copy of this book in a local bookstore and was intrigued by what it could contain. As an adult, I was shocked that a book like this could be on display within easy reach of children and sensitive adults alike. I am not squeamish and was quite capable of looking at the bloodied scenes with the bodies strewn doll-like in various poses, blood pouring from their mouths and pooling beside their bodies. A morbid fascination made me look at the rest of the pictures, much as we would look at an accident scene as we pass by to see if anyone was killed. These are not pictures showing the corpses face down and in the distance - there are many close-up shots of almost distinguishable faces. I'm not sure I see the art in these pictures, and I also question the necessity to show such graphic detail of people in their last moments. These photos were taken for insurance companies and to record the accident for highway patrol. The Publisher's review states "Locked away in his Anaheim studio since his death in 1963, Kilpatrick's work might have remained lost in obscurity if photography collector and dealer Jennifer Dumas had not stumbled upon his treasure trove of 5,000 negatives and brought them to light. " To me this says that Kilpatrick never intended these images to be used in this way and that perhaps they should have remained hidden? There is no honor in death and these people and their families suffered in an immense way that we can only hope we will never experience. I tend to feel that perhaps this book was published more for its shock value. It should have a warning on its cover and in its review and it should be sold sealed in plastic. There is a reason that television doesn't show pictures like this to the public - where graphic scenes are shown, they are preceded by a warning to sensitive viewers. The book's only saving grace is the black-and-white format that makes the pictures matter-of-fact and slightly less gruesome. Buyers, be sure to look closely at the pictures that Amazon provides as a view of what is inside this book before buying - this book is about death and how it happened. I am haunted and disturbed by the faces I saw and will not easily forget them. I was reminded of how fragile life is and how quickly it can be taken away from you. Personally, I would give this book 1 star to indicate my disturbed reaction to its subject matter. But objectively, it is exactly what it says it is - car crashes and other sad stories. I could not give it 5, or even 4, stars because the "author" and publisher neglected their civic duty to put a warning on the cover or in the title. I also question what sort of person would want to own a copy of a book like this.

Before my stepdaughter went off to her first driving class, I showed her this book. I think it made an impression. Makes you think about the responsibilty and risks you assume when you get behind the wheel.

I would agree with another reviewer who said the black and white format makes these photos matter-of-fact and less gruesome. With over two hundred pictures in the book, between sixty and seventy show bodies, the rest are autos in various states of demolition caused by accidents.

The flimsiness of the Detroit's product is evident in photo after photo, page 126 shows a car door, seperated from the rest of the vehicle and three-quarters wrapped round a telegraph pole. There are several car/train accident photos and the trains seem to have no damage at all, the cars are crumpled like paper.

As these photos were primarily statements of record for insurance companies and the police Kilpatrick worked out the best exposure and camera angle and stuck to it, so the book reflects his style, if it was a collection of accident photos by many photographers it would not be so interesting. This is one man's professional work in the forties and fifties in southern California.

The landscape all-black format of the book helps the photos stand out but I have yet to work out the meaning of the small graphic item at the bottom of each page. Tachen are to be applauded in publishing a book of photos (clearly not to everyones taste) that normally would not be seen.