Amazon.com Review
In this book cataloguing 50 years of Peter Beard's photography, essayist Peter Tunney offers an interesting perspective on Beard's work: "Above all, Peter Beard is a collector, the camera only one method to his madness, a mere tool for accumulating his relished subject matter, the evidence of a life lived, all stuffed into a diary, or any book for that matter. Peter once remarked to me, 'I never save a book unless I have something glued in it.'" Beard's photos are collages of lists, of reference points; when he shows in a gallery, he insists that a mixed tape of music is played to amplify and add a layer of sound to his pictures. The texture in his photo collages is rich, and the layers are thick. The elements he employs create a whole vision of his work: Africa, Andy Warhol, Francis Bacon, the Kennedys, elephants, Montauk, Mick Jagger, blood, crocodiles, things cut out of their context and put in new ones--the picture begins to form. Fifty years' worth of work is collected in this book, expressed in faces readers may recognize and some they won't; his adventures; and his years at Hog Ranch in Africa. Somehow these diverse points of reference come together in their differences and illustrate completely Peter Beard's fascinating work and life. --Amra Brooks
From Library Journal
Photography, collage, diary. For 50 years controversial and acclaimed photographic adventurer Beard has been using these tools to chronicle the massive sea change the world is undergoing. This book surveys his work, ranging from his early African photographs to his most recent large-scale multimedia collages. Since publishing his seminal and unflinching The End of the Game in 1963, Beard has continued to create a barrage of works. Using his "dictionary of images"Aa huge collection of media including found objects, photographs of people and of animal carcasses, text excerpts, drawings, and bloodAhe has developed a powerful lexicon regarding death, nature, technology, information overload, time, population, celebrity, and objectification. His brutally frank works are crowded yet reveal a textured and complicated construction that is at once oblique, disturbing, and ironic. He challenges our preconceptions of beauty and composition while expanding the concept of picture making. Highly recommended for larger public and academic libraries.ADebora A. Miller, Minneapolis
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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