Customer Reviews

Winterreise

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have never seen a photography book where every picture has been perfection - absoultely fascinating. The colors, the cropping the layout is truly incredible. I am amazing and moved by every image. If you are looking for a gift for someone who likes photography, this is amazing. it is all natural light and the subject matter is depresing, but the pitcures are so incredible, you will look at it over and over again. hightly recommended

Luc Delahaye is attempting to make a social and political statement about the suffering that he saw poor Russians enduring during the rapid industrialization after the fall of the Iron Curtain. His camera documents, in sometimes painful detail, how some people have fared under the new capitalist regime. In this he succeeds admirably. Clearly, the rising tide hasn't lifted all the boats. Much like Charles Dickens in his time and place, he is trying to tell us about the lives of those at the bottom in Russia.

However, this photo essay is not a comedy. You may find yourself thanking your lucky stars you aren't living the degraded and sad lives of Delahaye's subjects, but the photos are hard to look at at times.

Moreover, I think some of the other reviewers have a perfectly valid point when they state that there is a bottom end of the lowest class in every society, and the Russians depicted in these photos are no more representative of Russia as a whole than Skid Row denizens could represent all of California.

Overall, this is an important, if sometimes painfully honest, work.

There is no doubt that Luc Delahaye is one of the more formidable photojournalists today and there cannot be any serious criticism of his style and dedication to producing strong images. His book, 'Winterreise', is a well produced book and its smaller than usual format does not affect the impact of the pictures. However, I found one problem with this work - it is immensely depressing.

In my opinion this book is a highly professional, well documented study of poverty and abject misery . Moving through the book, one wonders in what mental state the photographer ended up after having spent so much time in such an oppresively miserable environment. Having completed my first look of the book, I immediately thought that Delahaye should have titled the work, 'Misery'.

I must emphasise again that there is nothing poor about the quality of 'Winterreise'. The book meets the highest standards of photojournalism and documentary reporting. Yet it is so depressing that I find myself avoiding it.

Everyone has seen the Russia of fairytales in storied picture books, but Luc Delahaye seems to be the first photographer to cut through the glossy exterior of a time long gone by to show the Russia of today. I've spent nearly 5 years in this country and get chills when looking through this book as it reminds me of so many images I saw first-hand here. My own journals from my time here don't even come close to Luc Delahaye's depiction of what more than 70 years of a system gone wrong can do to a society.

There is no doubt that Luc Delahaye is one of the more formidable photojournalists today and there cannot be any serious criticism of his style and dedication to producing strong images. His book, 'Winterreise', is a well produced book and its smaller than usual format does not affect the impact of the pictures. However, I found one problem with this work - it is immensely depressing.

In my opinion this book is a highly professional, well documented study of poverty and abject misery . Moving through the book, one wonders in what mental state the photographer ended up after having spent so much time in such an oppresively miserable environment. Having completed my first look of the book, I immediately thought that Delahaye should have titled the work, 'Misery'.

I must emphasise again that there is nothing poor about the quality of 'Winterreise'. The book meets the highest standards of photojournalism and documentary reporting. Yet it is so depressing that I find myself avoiding it.

A simple, small book without compromise. Intensely personal, it seems that Delahaye has photographed not with conscious thought, but with simple feeling. It is the most honest photography book for me since The Americans, and Delahaye's birch tree closing sequence is the saddest letdown and most pefect ending to a photo book i have ever seen.

This one little book is worth more, than tons of paper waste you'll find nowdays on shelves of "Photography" section in mainstream bookshops.

this book is itself a long, sad, visual poem. it is truly one of the best photo essays ever done, by a an artist who deserves more credit as being, in some opinion, the best photographer on the planet today. although that kind of argument is ridiculous, his books are all compelling, dangerous, edgy, and most of all honest and sympathetic for often forgotten people.

Certainly the best work on Russia in years. A must.

This photographer gets close, becomes invisible to his subjects and he is able to shoot them in such a way that they forget that he is there. The portraits of people are very good. The landscapes are nothin terrific and should have been included in this book.