Customer Reviews

Two Times Intro : On the Road With Patti Smith

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book includes not just black and white photographs shot by Michael Stipe while on the road with Patti Smith, but also many polaroid photos taken by Patti Smith's guitarist Oliver Ray. Oliver Ray's photographs are designated by a little "O" near his photos.

While Stipe certainly has some real gems here, he doesn't demonstrate complete mastery over his camera equipment, which to my knowledge was a Leica M6. Many of the images here are blurry and/or out of focus. But that is ok, it evokes a certain frantic 'on the road touring with a rock band' style.

Oliver Ray's Polaroids are on the other hand, wonderful. Taken with a cheap Polaroid Land Camera 100 (circa 1960s) using instant Polaroid 667 black and white 'peel-apart' film (which is still sold), Ray achieves stunning results especially when you understand the' limited featured' camera he worked with. This book is an interesting study for anyone who is as fond of Polaroid photography as I am.

If you are an R.E.M. and Michael Stipe fan, or a Patti Smith fan, then of course you will enjoy this book. However if you are seeking true pristine photographic works of art, look elsewhere. Most of these images evoke a more 'grunge' (for lack of a better word) feel. There is some great prose by Stipe, Ray, and many others including Patti Smith. And, there are many famous people depicted including the likes of Allen Ginsberg.

One note about my copy of the book-after just one reading, the binding fell apart and the first quarter of the book fell apart into separate pages from the book. This was very dissappointing and should not have happend under normal reading...

As you can see I came to this book as one who appeciates Stipe's gift with words and wanted to see how his photography shaped up. I was not disappointed. Emotive, non-linear, these are words Michael Stipe is used to seeing in his reviews, and this one is no different just because it is visual rather than musical. Who needs focus? Any fool can point an automatic, take a snapshot. What is wonderful about this book is that Stipe's love of his subjects, the reverance and passion shows through. He has a natural eye for the beautiful and for the grotesque and the pictures are almost organic in composition. We are too linear in our thinking. Stipe makes us look in directions we forgot were there. He frames those things we take forgranted and fail to notice in what was, for him, everyday life. I didn't come looking for the clinical, artfully-lit style of Mapplethorpe. I wanted a piece of unadorned reality through someone else's lens, and that's what I got. Stipe and Ray (Smith's guitarist). The poetry's rather beautiful, also.

When I first saw this in a bookstore, I passed on buying it because the photographs are absolutely awful. But I'm a huge Patti Smith fan, and when I read a review saying that it was worth getting just for the text, I took the bait. Bad move. The text isn't bad, but no big deal. And again the photos are just terrible, "arty" in the very worst way-- badly framed, mostly out of focus, uninteresting shots to begin with. Considering the opportunity Stipe was afforded, this is a real shame.

Michael Stipe's surprisingly incomplete photo essay of Patti on tour is a minor disappointment, akin to discovering an old photo album with the more important events -- the ones you'd really like to see -- obviously missing from the book. What's there is intriguing but doesn't reveal a lot, and the out-of-focus style Stipe uses isn't artful, just simply affected. Somewhere in Michael's garage, and Oliver Ray's basement, there are some great photos of Patti-the-shaman, as Mr. Burroughs describes her. I hope they don't get water-damaged in that cardboard box along with the discarded Polaroid camera.

Michael Stipe should be commended on this great book of photography being on the road with Patti Smith. What I find truly wonderful is his love and admiration of his dear friend Patti Smith. I am truly moved by this work. I am a fan of both Smith and Stipe. I too like Stipe have been blessed and inspired by Smith's poetry and music. The words included in the book are worth reading. The photos are terrific and presented in an artistic way. It allows the reader (or viewer) to see what is special about Patti Smith, her band, and friends in ways not seen before. It is a great addition for fans of both Patti Smith and REM.

I love Patti Smith, and love reading just about anything related to her. And I respect Michael Stipes as an artist. Even so, I found nothing of merit in this book. The photos are just awful, incredibly bad, and I found the accompanying text to be pretentious at best. Do yourself a favor, and take a look at this book "in the flesh" before you buy a copy. I wish I had.

A couple of things I've learned being an REM fan are that 1) things don't have to be logical to make sense and 2) that beauty is in the eye of ME, not the beholder sitting over there somewhere (of COURSE, everyone is their own "me" but that's just common sense). And I think this book is beautiful. If you love logic, or perfection for perfection's sake, don't bother, but if you want to look at something that's a bit different, see some images that it takes a mind like Michael Stipe's to think up, then I heartily reccomend it to you. The writings are fascinating as well. I almost felt like it gave me a bit of a peep hole into this group of people, to read some of their thoughts, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

This book was photographed at a turning point for Patti Smith AND Michael Stipe--she had begun to tour regularly again after a period of motherhood & contemplation--and he had just gotten off the road...The photograph of Allen Ginsberg looking at Tony Shanahan taking off his shirt is worth the price of the book alone...and Patti has never been photographed this gloriously relaxed... beautiful photos!

I don't understand all the fuss being made about Michael Stipe's photography in this compelling book. How else would one go about capturing the dervish that is Patti Smith than by being a little out of focus? The images compliment perfectly her body of work, and her DIY aesthetic. As an artist who has picked up Smith's torch, Stipe has created a lovely valentine to her, and he has documented forever her "very big deal" tour with Bob Dylan. Thank Heaven we still have artists still humble enough to give credit where credit is due. This is a very nice addition to any Smith or Stipe collection......

I have read the reviews posted about this book, they unfortunately do not do it justice. The introductions give the reader tremendous insight into the life and career of Patti Smith, as well as the importance that her work has for so many people. I personally found the photographs to be excellent. Being in black and white has allowed the pictures to be stripped down to their most basic and primative state, which is emotion. These photographs by Stipe are much like the lyrics to REM's songs. They are simple yet unspecific in nature, it is left up to the reader (or listener) to interpret them in his or her own way. So ultimately the majority of the photo's in the book are left for you to ponder into the life of Patti Smith on tour. After all this is not a "where's Waldo" children's book, it is a book of art done by an exceptionally talented artist, covering a very complicated and influential female artist in her tour element.