6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Incredible photos of the young Jackie, for her real admirers., October 8, 2005
This review is from: Young Jackie: Photographs of Jacqueline Bouvier (Hardcover)
Jacqueline Kennedy, nee Bouvier, was one of the most singularly beautiful women ever to grace the American scene, and this collection of excellent photographs is an affectionate photo album of her young years. The composure and obvious self-possession of the young Jackie shines through in every photo, where her gaze invariably meets the camera as equal, if not an entirely welcome interloper in her rarefied world of privilege.
Jackie is one of those people whose adult features were pretty much perfectly formed as a child; her face would change little in the intervening years, lending an air of otherworldliness to these remarkable photographs. There is much presecience here of the woman she would become, and curiously little given away about the kind of child she was. Her beauty was as opaque as it was breathtaking, perhaps never more so than when she was young and did not yet know quite how striking she was.
If you are a fan and admirer of Jackie, this book may be the very best of its kind on the market, and really belongs on your bookshelf. It's definitely in mine!
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2.0 out of 5 stars
For whom was this reprehensibly vicious introduction written? Not for anyone wanting to see this book!, January 24, 2012
This review is from: Young Jackie: Photographs of Jacqueline Bouvier (Hardcover)
The author of the introduction claims to be a student in Oxford, but this could not be in the area of literature nor in history, for the introduction is nothing more than a vicious string of slander and gossip of the kind so fashionable in attacking this family, even stooping to puncture the "myth" of Camelot in piercing without proof an elder's claims to ancient royal ancestry.
De mortuis nil nisi bonum, and in this case, when you are writing the introduction for a book which will be read only by those who yet hold this subject dear, do not stoop to such idle and vicious gossip, including in the chronology.
Therefore this work seriously needs a professional historian or academic to write its introduction, including actual historical facts and dates in the chronology and not simply further opportunity to heap calumny upon this already laden subject.
This book further requires a good professional photo editor, one with a sharp scissors.
My object in acquiring this work not only was an admiration for its subject, but also for photography, and wished to witness how this was done by a leading social photographer of the day. I had seen to advantage the excellent presentation in
The Kennedys: Portrait of a Family and assumed the same here.
Not only do we get the worse than useless introduction, but also very poor presentation of the photos.
The two page spreads of this mini-coffee table book regularly decapitates the horses at the fold.
The rest should have been cropped. We always find very poor compositional choices, much extraneous material and challenged exposures, things a decent photo lab and photo editor would have cleared up in post production before sending it out in the newspaper. None of that here.
The creepiest photo of all offends in so many ways, and offends the principal rule of photography: let not, photographer, thy shadow intrude.
Yet, there, selected as the back cover photo, we see the nubile Jackie seated on the ground, her legs undoubtedly exposed at the photographer's request, whose large ominous shadow of rounded head approaches her exposed thigh (every where else well covered) while she bears a look screaming, "Daddy, this photographer is really creeping me out!" Of course on Jackie this resembles the head of Michelangelo's David, but it is clear. We see the whole series of this shoot, and the second, smiling beamingly, would have done, but the shooter kept moving in. Why?
Creepy and unprofessional, and this book needs a good photo editor and an introduction with chronology, not what we have here.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Jackie before the Oh!!?, October 5, 2011
This review is from: Young Jackie: Photographs of Jacqueline Bouvier (Hardcover)
The collection of photographs that are displayed are mainly of her in riding habit or in riding competitions and with her horse. Many of the photos are staged and posed taken by a professional photographer. Hardly any are candid, which I would have liked to see more of. They are all in black and white. The captions are very brief and lack historical clarification to some of the places and events sited. I would have preferred more information instead of being lead to something I have to further research or look-up.
There is writing in the first few pages of the book which sets the perspective for the reader very well. Although most of the book is of photos and small captions.
I have written an unbiased interpretation of the book above. Personally though I would have preferred a mélange of photos from candid, personal, and family photos as well as staged photos shown. I would have also liked more writing on what is happening in the photos. Overall this book does satisfy the viewer.
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