An aggressively bright yellow taxi hopes to catch the attention of a harassed city dweller...A window display of theatrical complexity suggests a microcosm of the metropolis itself...Graffiti-spattered walls and vehicles might well be confused with the bright frames of comic-books...These are the targets of Robert Walker's extraordinary photography - the contemporary, universal meglopolis, in all its crazy colour, its dissonance and chaos. Robert Walker's world is one in which mundane activities take on the character of inexplicable urban rites and quasi-mythic struggles. Using the phone, crossing the street, holding one's own on the busy pavement: such insignificant actions demand competitiveness and creativity. The photographer records these instants with an eye for the odd and the absurd, but not without empathy for the individual caught up in the city's complex machinery. His witty blurring of the real and unreal - the sign, the illusion, the simulacrum, ultimately the dream - forces us to question our understanding of the city. The actual city, Walker seems to be saying, is as much image as glass, concrete, steel and living flesh. Walker's introduction to this book gives the background to these pictures. He has been wandering in the cities of North America and Europe for over 25 years, ready to snatch that split-second conjunction of form, colour and motion. He participates in the long tradition of street photography which both celebrates the vibrancy of big city life and critiques its wear and tear on the citizen. His images speak of the bigger picture of urban experience - the lives we share, happily or otherwise, in New York, London, Paris, Rio and Rome.
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About the Author
Robert Walker was born in Montreal, where he studied painting at Concordia University. In the mid-1970s, he developed a keen interest in street photography, moving to New York City in 1978. His first book, New York Inside Out, was published in 1984. The photographer has exhibited widely in the United States, Canada and Europe. His images have appeared in many prestigious journals and books.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pass my sunglasses,
This review is from: Color Is Power (Hardcover)
You really get your money's worth with Robert Walker's photography. Throughout the book so many photos are packed with extra dimensions and depth and you can visually crop them into several more images within one photo and I haven't even got to the dazzling color. Fortunately he works on city streets where everything is going on at once and somehow he manages to capture this visual busyness (or chaos even). I think his best photos are the ones where utility workers and equipment or traffic provide plenty of odd angles and pictures within pictures.
Of the six chapters only one: Redeem All (more or less in the middle of the book) slows the pace by using photos that are much simpler and in more subdued color. The other chapters, it seems to me, just blend into each other so that the chapter titles seem rather redundant. The color vibrancy of these photos might not be everybody's taste but that is his style and you could never say his work is dull. I consider him the LeRoy Neiman of photography. ***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.
5.0 out of 5 stars
masterful color street photography,
This review is from: Color Is Power (Hardcover)
This photographer has two great books, and is not nearly as well-known as people like Alex Webb, Costa Manos, etc. This particular book is one of the finest I've seen, with foldout double truck pages and amazing reproduction. A must for anyone seriously interested in color street work or the social study of outdoor advertising and its influence on city life.
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