Customer Reviews

Elsa's housebook: A woman's photojournal

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What ever happened to those good old days in Cambridge, MA when Club Passim was Club 47, Larry Summers was in high school, Abercrombie was the Tasty, the JFK School was a car park, and Elsa Dorfman, Boston's famed portrait photographer, had not yet discovered the big polaroid? These days are seen in this 1973-4 period-piece from the artist formerly known as "Ellie" documenting the parade of notables and friends who visited her in her first real house, on Flagg St. in Cambridge across from Harvard's newly constructed Mather House dormitory. The book captures the fabric of the day-to-day life of a young teacher-turned-photographer, and at the same time portrays the look and feel of the People's Republic at a particular and productive time, especially through its glimpses into the private lives of literary figures like Allen Ginsburg. A must for Cambridge/Harvard collectors/afficiandos.

Elsa Dorfman, in ELSA'S HOUSEBOOK, combines the sensibilities of a very strong writer with an absolute genius for portrait photography. Elsa is the well-known Cambridge (MA) photographer who now uses one of the six remaining legendary giant Polaroid 20x24 Land Cameras, which take huge color one-of-a-kind portraits. One can see in her black-and-white less formal portraits of family and friends in the HOUSEBOOK the early hints of what was to emerge years later. Taken together with her later books - notably EN FAMILLE (with the poet Robert Creeley, of whom there are fascinating early photos in the HOUSEBOOK) and the most recent NO HAIR DAY (as astoudingly original and moving text-plus-Polaroid-portraits of three women who met in a chemo lab)-- Elsa Dorfman's published text-and-portraits give a unique picture of the life and work of this remarkable artist over several decades of an enormously vital personal and professional life. I know the writer/artist personally and can say that her work does truly reflect her life and her sensibilities. Highly recommended. Harvey Silverglate, Cambridge, MA.

...got the book with enthusiasm, bought the book with enthusiasm, got the package with enthusiasm, even opened the package with enthusiasm. when i read and looked through it all i felt was an overhwhelming anti-climatic narcosis. how disappointing indeed. craftsmanship, mediocre; style and composition, shows some thinking; writing, rather naive to my taste. however, i should like to give credit to elsa's experience captured in this book. what the book captures is not so much 'photographic substance' but the voice of a woman's experience and the entourage of her emotions. still would rather have my money back though...