2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Substandard and irrelevant photography, May 5, 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: Bangkok : Great Cities Series (Hardcover)
I've got to admit that the reviews below are somewhat misleading. I really have to disagree with the author's husband that the book is "breathtakingly beautiful", and can't understand the other reviewers' comment about the photos being "gorgeous".
In fact, the photography is an utter disappointment, and nowhere close to being what I'd call professional quality.
Focus is weak in far too many photos, and most of them have no compelling centre of interest. This being the case, the reader has to rush to the caption to try to understand the relevance of the photo, and in far too many cases is left puzzled by how the photo is meant to match the description. A good example of this, taken at random, is Photo 110 where the centre of attention, and the only subject in focus, is a man's head poking about a street vendor's cart. In the foreground, a single out-of-focus young girl stands with her back to the camera. The caption, however, reads "Little girls dress up for a New Year's Eve party". I'm afraid that the quality of photography and lack of relevance of the captions are equally bad in the majority of the photos. They really are very disappointing photos.
The writing *is* generally "clear and lucid" (first reviewer), but not what I'd call "beautiful" (second reviewer). It also suffers occasionally from statements that betray the lack of detailed understanding of Thai history and culture ... but to be fair, only country specialists would pick up on most of these inaccuracies. The writing is not the problem with this book.
I would not recommend anyone to buy this book without having a chance to look through the photography and decide for themselves if it is worth the money. Personally, for me it was a great disappointment.
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