Customer Reviews

Hoover Dam: The Photographs of Ben Glaha

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The Amazon Editorial Reviews above will give you a good idea of this book's contents but what isn't said is that this is not a photo book of Ben Glaha's work. His fifty shots included are really an adjunct to Barbara Vilander's excellent text. She clearly has done a lot of research into the dam's construction by the Six Companies and how Glaha photographed all aspects of this activity. Her coverage extents to placing the photos in the context of the Machine Aesthetic (chapter four) and use of the photos by the Bureau of Reclamation (chapter five: The Photographs as Propaganda).

Though the text is interesting I was disappointed that the book's production is quite bland. Glaha's photos (and others) are presented on the page with far too much surrounding white space and they have been scanned as ordinary photos as you would see in a picture book so that light areas merge into the whiteness of the paper, dark parts of so many photos nearly turn to black. Overall there is a feeling of grayness as I look through the book's images.

Glaha's work really needs proper scanning, quality paper and printing as duotones in a photo book format to bring out the creative and information aspects that are inherent in his photos. With the existing text such a book could look quite stunning.

If you are interested in all aspects of the dam's construction the best book I've found is The Story of the Hoover Dam, a remarkable record originally published in various issues of Compressed Air Magazine, 1931-1935. It has plenty of maps, diagrams and photos some of which were taken by Glaha. It is quite technical though. Click on the link to the book to see some spreads I've uploaded.


***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.