5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Everyone Needs To Own This Book, March 4, 2007
This review is from: The Secret Life of Cows (Paperback)
For all of those who've ever wondered what cows were doing when not chewing their cud, this book offers the viewer entree into the very busy lives of these seemingly placid creatures. The photo-illustrations are perfectly executed, the text is very funny and more importantly you'll spend a lot of time smiling even after the book has been closed. I cannot think of Casino Cow without laughing.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cowabunga Mooed, March 9, 2007
This review is from: The Secret Life of Cows (Paperback)
Glen Wexler sees things a bit differently than the rest of us....and thank god for that. Glen's work has always been discribed as 'visionary.' As in, have you seen Glen's 'visionary' Van Halen Album cover? In "The Secret Life of Cows" he harnesses his 'visionary' powers to bring out only the very best in bovine humor. If you don't smile, laugh out loud or even snort milk out of your nose when you read this book, you better call 911, because you proably don't have a pulse. And if that wasn't enough to get you to part with ten-dollars-and-seventeen-cents, it turns out that Eric Idle fella is pretty funny, too...
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Eat More Chickin, July 31, 2010
This review is from: The Secret Life of Cows (Paperback)
Filled with an eclectic collection of cows posing in unimaginable situations interrupted with terse spots of text, this may be the ideal book for a potato brained one like myself. I first learned of Glen Wexler's book while flipping through a photography magazine offering a few nuggets of the book as appetizers. Impressed by the imagination and creativity shown in the sample photos, I determined to obtain my own copy of this remarkable book. Having dabbled in digital transformations myself for years, I wanted to see the work of a master. This book does not disappoint.
At book's end are several pages of text explaining how this book came to be. Glen Wexler has created album covers and been part of multimillion-dollar advertising campaigns. The Secret Life of Cows evolved from his work for Chick-fil-A's ads promoting the consumption of chicken, not cows. The amusing ads featuring cows spawned a calendar of fantastic cow images. These creations are the meat of this book.
Wexler and his production designer arranged to have some cow sculptures made to a one third scale. The cow sculptures were dressed in various costumes and tirelessly posed for thirty days of shooting. Special effects were also photographed to blend with the cow images. The final product came about after more than 600 hours of post-production editing and the collaboration of assistants.
The 94-page book contains 24 full page, full color plates of cows in poses that are superhuman, suave, athletic, adventurous and feisty. Preceding the plates of superhero cows are a few bonus photographs, a full page portrait shot of a handsome black and white cow, a full two-page spread of cows descending from a flying saucer above a corn field, one of a cow about to be launched over a castle wall via trebuchet (catapult), and a gripping depiction of eight cows posing in tandem in striking superhero outfits beneath a dark, ominous sky.
Each plate is replete with detail, color, clarity, cow-risma and is suitable for framing or just sharing. As one turns the pages, he/she is struck by the limitless imagination of the creator of these scenes. A cow in purple, full body costume, yellow boots and yellow cape, bellows forcefully enough to shatter the windows of the Keller Beef Bros. Building in front of which she stands. Shards of glass are frozen in midair in juxtaposition to the cow's wide-open mouth and corrugated steel building.
On another plate we see a nearly all white cow with Ð%" emblazoned on her side. She stands in a puddle of white that might be milk or part of the melting white cow.
I particularly like the depictions of the secret agent cows. It's quite uncommon to see cows dressed elegantly in tuxedos, typing on laptops, or flying through the air propelled by a rocket pack. A cow gambling in a fancy casino and wearing an obvious human mask is hysterically funny. Also delightful are the tuxedoed cow parachuting into a speed boat, and the two cows on a motorcycle (most likely a Cowasaki) with a sidecar racing away from the circus burger tractor trailer.
As surreal as the photographs are, the cows, backgrounds and props are melded seamlessly and appear as natural and uncontrived as such pictures can look.
In the last "chapter" the full size plates are reproduced in miniature with titles, many with funny penmanship. Titles like Decibell, Gristle Missile, Kowrate, Divine Bovine, Leatherneck, Cowborg, Cowmeleon, and Holstoy, can best be appreciated when associated with the target photograph.
Like cows? Like digital transformations? Like looking at the silly, the absurd, the impossible? If so, you're bound to enjoy Glen Wexler's "The Secret Life of Cows."
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