Customer Reviews

PAPER DREAMS, HOLLYWOOD STILL LIFES

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

 

 

The other review is certainly valid. I add this only because it kept me from purchasing this book for a period of time. I finally went ahead and ordered it anyway. I'm glad that I did. It is a worthwhile addition to my collection of photography books.

This is a nice, but modest in number collection of some intriguing images. Reproduction quality is excellent and the images themselves are wonderful. The author states that this is part of a larger collection of these rare images, but out of the 110 pages, there are only 48 full page plates, with only a short identification line on the facing page. The format could have easily doubled the images. Consequently, I feel the book is overpriced for what you get. Worth it at half the price. Save your money for better assembled collections like Alfred Chaney Johnson's, Clarence Sinclair Bull's, George Hurrell, Ruth Harriet Louise, or any of the Kobal compilations.

This is a facinating book if you reflect on current trends (past 15 years or so) in fine art photography. For me, the essay in the beginning puts the book's importance in this context -a point previous reviewers overlooked.

The still image taken (disrupted) from a larger film narrative becomes an ambiguous image on its own, suggesting other narrative interpretations and possibilities. Many current photographers - Jeff Wall, Creydson, Lorca-Di Corcia, the list goes on - defined current trends in photography by doing just that. The Hollywood still photographers had no idea the possibilities of their documents. A few of these images, save for the black and white print, look shockingly current.