Customer Reviews

Time Pieces: Photographs, Writing, and Memory (Aperture Writers & Artists on Photography)

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I bought this primarily for the photography. Although Wright Morris is an excellent writer on things Midwestern (though I prefer Sinclair Lewis and Theodore Dreiser), Morris has a keen sense of observation and a sensitive approach to writing.

Unfortunately, though, the printing of the photographs is wretched, flat and unworthy of the master photographer.

Instead of this book, I recommend "Distinctly American: The Photography of Wright Morris," if what you're after is pristine rendering of his photographs.

What a joy it is to be in the presence of a clear thinker, and to roam the world of image and word with him! I searched out his perspecitives on time, emotion, and memory and went away refreshed.

In his opening essay, "In Our Image," Wright Morris says, "The visible captured. Time arrested. Through a slit in time's veil we see what has vanished. An unearthly, mind-boggling sensation: commonplace yet fabulous. The photograph is paramount. th photographer subordinate."

There is a fine essay on "Of Memory, Emotion, and Imagination." In "Photography in My Life," I enjoyed reading his journey of exploration from photographer only to pioneering text and photos to becoming primarily a novelist in later years--with his photographic eye trained upon his novelistic descriptions.

This book of essays teamed with photos (I'm so glad they are here, regardless of production values) is rich and full.

--Janet Grace Riehl, author Sightlines: A Poet's Diary