Customer Reviews

The Silver Cord: Photographs

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I recently discovered David Armstrong's work in VMan (Fall 2009) with his photo essay of actor Penn Badgley. I'm a big fan of Paul Jasmin and Bruce Weber and thought that Armstrong might be in that vein.

This book is a strange and unsatisfying amalgam of beautifully composed portraits and out-of-focus street scenes. Compared to a book like Jasmin's LOST ANGELS, where the scenic shots of Los Angeles set the mood and logically co-exist with portraits of the Hollywood young, there is absolutely no discernible connection between the men and women in this book and the blurry images of buildings dropped into the mix.

Naturally, there is an essay by Nan Goldin in which she applauds his soft focus buildings and crisp portraits by calling this jumble of inarticulate editing a "subjective nature of all reality". Sometimes, too much can be explained and extrapolated in a photograph, and those critics who write about photography are outstanding geniuses at creating meaning and pretentious analogies where none might exist at all.

I would like to add that while I do not like this book, I generally love most of Mr. Armstrong's work. My criticisms are directed at the way this particular book, "The Silver Cord" was assembled, in a language and style that is only understandable by the photographer and which does not speak clearly or understandably enough to the viewer.