Customer Reviews

Just Add Water: Photographs by Burk Uzzle

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's rare that you get to see a photo book as large as this, fifteen and a quarter inches wide (most of the plates are just over thirteen inches) the only comparable one I have is Mitch Epstein's 'Recreation' at almost seventeen inches. The size advantage allows you to appreciate many of Uzzle's remarkable photos in these pages (the 200 screen helps, too) and the ones I like best are the thirty-seven or so that could be loosely called American commonplace.

These are exterior images of the man-made landscape, here it includes a beautiful back of a fast food sign all in red, a profile shot of a huge orange trailer, positioned so that it looks like an abstract painting or my favorite called 'Daytona 500 Pit', a complex arrangement of black trailers, yellow and white signage, some red painted equipment and a dash of silver metal. One of those photos where the more you look the more you see.

The fifty-nine photos in the book were taken between 2004 and 07 and apart from the thirty-seven I've mentioned I thought the other twenty-two rather weakened the overall appeal of the book to me (so four stars) because they are either interiors or, for want of a better description, photos that look just too casual. One near the back of the book is titled `Straw hat with bottom' a close-up showing a group people possibly getting ready for a parade and it seems so out of keeping with the majority of photos in the book. There six interiors of collector John Herrmann's house, great shots of course but again rather out of keeping with the rest. The Herrmann house looks fascinating enough to generate a whole separate book of photos.

'Just add water' (referring to the cover photo) gives a wonderful glimpse of America through Burk Uzzle's eyes, a pity, from my point-of-view, that the overall theme is rather diluted.

***SEE SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.

Looked at every page of this book yesterday and can't wait to get my own copy! It is large and lush and the color is so rich! The images have detail that will blow you away. Burk has taken simple views of our world and created complex, creative, layered photographs that you will dwell in for hours.

I love black and white but his color work is mesmerizing, you feel like you can walk right into the images!

Worth every penny!