Customer Reviews

Robert Polidori's Metropolis

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Photographer Robert Polidori is at once a journalist and an artist and combines these two elements of inspection and observation into a remarkably beautiful and touching book.

Polidori is fascinated, even obsessed, with architecture as evidence of the presence or absence of man, praising the feats of the creators and the flaws of the destroyers. Based on his photographs of devastated buildings in Beirut, Chernobyl, Pripyat, and the crumblings of Brasilia and our own New York tenement buildings, Polidori's photographs are at once beautiful images of execution and tragic reminders of the building up and tearing down of man's proof of his existence in this civilization.

Adding to the drama of this touching portfolio are interviews with the artist sensitively conducted by Martin C. Pedersen (who just happens to be the editor of the magazine METROPOLIS). These conversations illuminate the interstices of the buildings photographed, suggesting why the hidden back rooms, stairwells, and hallways tell as much about the life of the building as do the facades Polidori finds so fascinating.

For students of Architecture, Photography, Sociology, Archaeology and for all who appreciate the fine art of photography, this is a book of rare distinction. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, March 05

I pick up this book in Beverly Hill Library today and I was attracted by the photograph on the cover. It is Shanghai. Three red brick low-rise old buildings as the foreground and the new highrises as background. I am doing the similar study in L.A. now.
However, after quickly went through this look I am rather disappointed to most of the rest of the images. I called some as "images" because I don't think they even qualify as "photographs". The editor of the book is damn low level or he might be sleepy in choosing the pictures.
The organization of the book is in chaos. Images after the very impressive parking lot photographers show up in disorder like a daydreamer's murmur. Postcard landscape shots of beautiful ruins then Shanghai's urban study and continued to Dubai, after one good shots then following by 3 tourists quality snapshot; then Las Vegasshots without careful composition and lack of contrast and without architectural, urban and cultural meaning. For example, the facade shot of Casino Caecars Palace put behind two electricity poles in almost noon time. What is the meaning of it? It the photographer is in a hurry that he could not wait for a better sky, a better timing or another standpoint, why made and published such a photo? Yes, there is some thinking here, but rather naive.
The rest of the pages show up like every 10 pages there is a good one but out of nowhere.
I don't want to comment on the locations I do not have personal experience. That the comment on the Cathedral of our Lady of the Angels by the photographer and the shots of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth really annoyed me and pushed me forward to criticize this book. The one exterior shot of Ando's Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth is so amateurism that any photographer who knows how to operate a large format camera can take the shot. Or maybe even naive, a 35mm camera with a tilt and shift lens can get the same result. Yes, I was there. That is not right. The 2 interior shots are worse.
Then the Cathedral shot is very mediocre. Standpoint is on Spring St over 101, shot at around 2pm, maybe late summer like early September. I doubt that Polidori ever walked back and forth to find the viewpoint, and got the right focal lens, and again, he did not choose the right time. If he tried to downgrade the Church, he should just shoot it with an iPhone.
OK, it should be an end for this article. I don't know this photographer and I just write what I think a good photography book about urban culture should be. Sure, there are many good photos in this book but I expect and respect some much higher standard-for example, Lois Connar's cultural landscape studies.
Always maintain an independent thinking head, don't let the so called authorities fool you.
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