Using conceptual portraits of fire hydrants to document the urban and rural American landscape, this humorous, clever collection of more than 100 images of fire hydrants includes at least one picture from each of the 50 states. Each image of a hydrant creatively mirrors its locality, from a hydrant reflected off a hubcap in Detroit to a hydrant as seen through the window of a Seattle coffee shop. This eclectic mix of photographs provides an entertaining, curbside view of America.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In this gimmicky collection of photographs, Detroit artist Crane shares pictures of fire hydrants in cities and towns across the country. Hydrants, he says, are "the perfect device to document America"—after all, there’s one on almost every street corner of the country. Through urban and rural American landscapes, Crane depicts hydrants in color photographs, showing how they differ regionally, in terms of color, shape, size and, of course, surroundings. A New York City hydrant has a pigeon pecking nearby and a subway station in the background; a Detroit hydrant is reflected in the hubcap of a Buick; a Chicago hydrant has a newspaper, blown by a gust of wind, plastered to its side. The approach is initially attention-grabbing, but ultimately the photos of these hydrants—rusted or shiny, bright silver or faded red—take a backseat to their backgrounds, which show off the true colors of America, through falling leaves in New Hampshire, a seafood restaurant in Maryland, a Baptist convalescent center in Kentucky and a sun-drenched wall in Arizona.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
About the Author
Sean Crane has worked as an advertising copywriter at agencies in Boston, Denver, Detroit, and New York City. He lives in Detroit, Michigan.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Almost connected to the water main,
This review is from: American Hydrant (Paperback)
An intriguing collection of hydrant photos from each state that refreshingly turns the ordinary into something special. Sean Crane had the foresight to photograph each hydrant as representing its location, for example Montana has the unit butting into a wide skyscape, Richmont, Vermont has its hydrant as part of a snow scene of children playing in front of a church, the caption says: Shades of Rockwell.
Fascinating as these photos are I was rather disappointed by the book's design. Each spread or page has the photo presented in a different way and this creates an artificial busyness that is not needed, the photos are strong enough in themselves to work well in a formal photo book format: generous margins, captions and graphics centred below each photo, a very thin black line around each picture to crispen the edges to prevent light areas merging into the book's paper. As it is the layouts gives the impression that perhaps several people contributed photos about the same subject. I thought the layout of American Hydrant unfortunately letdown an interesting visual idea. BTW, you can see twenty-four of these photos on Sean Crane's website.
5.0 out of 5 stars
fire hydrants,
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This review is from: American Hydrant (Paperback)
This is a great book for anybody who likes fire hydrants and the comments are funny. I had the feeling that Mr. Crane really enjoyed putting this piece of work together. Nice format.
5.0 out of 5 stars
An interesting book,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: American Hydrant (Paperback)
This book provides plenty of hydrants and surrounding sceneries in every state of U.S.
This is a funny way to learn and improve your geographic background. Enjoy it!
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