Category Archives: Book reviews

Photography books

The Savoring books

Book reviews, Cooking

Gorgeous and tasty.

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My small collection.

Take a magnum opus like Julia Child’s ‘Mastering the Art of French Cooking’ and you have every recipe imaginable from that land of culinary genius. Yet the books are as boring and as poorly presented as it gets. There are no photographs, a handful of poorly rendered pencil sketches passes for illustration, the fonts are dated and ugly and, well, the whole thing smacks of a well prepared meal thrown on a paper plate in higgledy piggledy fashion.

And that is very much not the case with these wonderful books from Williams-Sonoma, mostly published in the first five years of the millennium and now sadly out of print. I got mine from Abe Books, lightly used, for pennies on the dollar. Each boasts not one but two photographers – one for the locales, the other for the food and the photography is, without exception, gorgeous. And these are not just cookery books, for each recipe comes with historical detail explaining provenance and subtleties. Highly recommended not just for cooks aspiring to emulate the best in Western European cuisine but for lovers of great photography everywhere.

States of Decay

Book reviews

Urbex at its finest.

For an index of all my book reviews, click here.

There are very few words in this book and that’s appropriate for the powerful photography by Dan Barter and Dan Marbaix speaks for itself. This is Urbex at its finest, the pictures dark and moody and the many images of abandoned asylums terrifying in desolation. They must have been even more so when occupied. There are images of abandoned churches and factories and public transport termini also, but it’s the ones of the asylums which really leave a mark.



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Recommended for all fans of fine photography and urban decay.

Under Cape Cod Waters

Book reviews

A delight.

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Every photograph in this book is a delight to see. Ethan Daniels has strayed from the charming towns and streets of the cape east of Boston in Massachusetts and gone underwater to photograph its many marine delights, and he has done a wonderful job.


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New England Ruins

Book reviews, Photographers

Dead.

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Whereas lamenting dead malls – see the previous blogpost – is hard, as who really cares about their mostly abominable architecture, Rob Dobi’s record of dead theaters, manufacturing plants and, most troubling of all, psychiatric institutions, is poignant and moving. Many of these buildings pose immense issues owing to the presence of dangerous chemicals or asbestos, so tearing them down to build something new is a non-trivial task. So many just sit there, rotting.

The changes in psychiatric care, with greater sensitivity to the needs of patients, saw many 20th century psychiatric hospitals closed, their inhumane treatment of the mentally ill a thing of the past. Thank goodness for that. These are beautifully photographed in this small book which maximizes impact by full page bleed of the excellent photography. The author occasionally struggles with the extreme dynamic range in some of hs settings but that’s a minor quibble.


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The author’s talent is not limited to photography. He is also a professional illustrator and you can see more of his work at RobDobi.com.

Abandoned Malls of America

Book reviews, Photographers

Dying.

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We live in a post-mall age. Amazon has taken over retailing and, likely as not, the mall in your home town is now an Amazon fulfillment center.

Seph Lawless’s fine photography in this large book makes for depressing viewing and I confess I could only take his images a chapter at a time. But as a chronicle of what was once the quintessential American experience, the book belongs in any photo library.