Customer Reviews

Spring Broke

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What's happening to the youth of today? Well, number one, they're having a hell of a lot of fun and you can see the results in Nathaniel Welch's book SPRING BROKE.

One girl has a T shirt that says, "I'm not an alcoholic, I'm a drunk. Alcoholics go to meetings." She looks a bit like the very young Cybill Shepherd, with Shepherd's cockeyed superiority, as though she were in on the joke, even if the joke was on her. Welch is a fine photographer and one wonders how he got releases from some of his subjects, especially the two boys and three girls he photographs making out in the shower. The girls are wearing thongs, I guess to preserve decency, but the one boy's just wearing a backwards baseball cap. When they're US Senators will they be trying to suppress these photos? Who can tell, in another twenty years spring break may be happening all year round and maybe even in the senate chamber.

The funniest photo may be the one of the tiny hotel refrigerator completely filled with alcohol, beer and mixers. You couldn't even fit in a radish if you wanted to.

Potentially an incendiary book, SPRING BROKE plays it cool and doesn't take sides. You have the feeling that Welch, who must be nearly forty by now, has a true love for these kids akin to Larry Clark's. Good work all around.

Despite its title, this is not a "girls gone wild" in hardcover, but rather a series of thoughtful portraits about the desperate and sad reality behind the drunken revelry of spring break. Welch's photos are stark and honest without being lurid or judgmental. The book really captures the whole profane youth culture that is informed more by beer ads and porn films than anything else. Welch is a top-flight photographer and this book highlights his talents to a great degree.

Might be a usefull book if you are a parent trying to get your kid into re-hab, othewise... don't bother. Not worth the trouble, and a rather sad commentary on "higher" education.

This is a book of pictures of jocks and women who dig them, getting hammered.

"Yet Welch accepts, and even embraces, these raunchy rituals of extreme adolescence, alloing [sic] a strange sense of sadness to pervade. The morning after, broken spirits are left to reflect on their senseless acts, pack their bags, and head home.

...yeah, right. So why on earth would anyone want a book full of this? "Strange sense of sadness..." sounds like a fancy term for pathetic.

Don't waste your money on this book.