5 comments about Adobe Photoshop CS Down & Dirty Tricks.

1. The Photoshop CS Book for Digital Photographers (Voices That Matter)
   
   Both books are by Scott Kelby. He does a great job of telling you exactly what you need to do with the photos.



2. I buy all of the "Tricks" books for Photoshop. They all have great 'secrets' for achieving some really cool effects in a very short time. This book was no exception. Once you get one of the "Down and Dirty" books, you'll want them all. No Photoshop artist should be without them. If you want to hang with the pros out there, you need to know every one of these tips in this book. I recommend the "Down and Dirty" series for everyone who owns Photoshop.



3. This book is great for Photoshop CS beginners. It's packed with many tricks and techniques. You'll be saying, "So that's how they do that!" quite often. I have been able to take several techniques and use them and create variations for my own advertising.
   
   Example photos are available on Kelby's website for download. Unfortunately, they have a BRAND X stamp on them and their quality seems lower, but useful none-the-less.



4. This is not an in depth instruction manual for Photoshop CS. This does give the inexperienced user of Photoshop quick and easy tips for creating a variety of useful projects. Many of these projects will expose the new user to some of the powerful tools of Photoshop. If you want to learn all of the features of Photoshop then buy a more technical book or take a Photoshop course. So to get a start into the world of Photoshop this may be the book for you.



5. I have used many of Scott Kelby's books and every one gets better and better.
   Everything is so well explained that even a relative beginner to Photoshop would be able to achieve these effects. Although some of these effects can prove to be more difficult with a bit of care and careful reading they can eventually be done.
   All the effects , both with pictures and various text projects are really brilliant.
   The only warning is these effects become a bit addictive and you rarely feel happy with un-altered images any more.

5 comments about Creative Photo Cropping for Scrapbooks (Memory Makers).

1. I have looked and wasted so much money buying scrapbooking books here and there for these tiny bits of "goodness" in them. When this book arrived I realized I finally found a true inspiration book - no fluff, no fillers, no really basic-how-to-scrapbook instructions. Everytime I open this book I become entralled with the examples....(Ooohhh, I NEED to do that next time...WAAYY TOO COOL!).
   
   If you are a beginning scrapbooker - this book is not for you. The methods of cutting or cropping are better left to those who've gained experience with cropping photos and using a paper trimmer. A better book for you would be Scrapbooking for Dummies (covers a wide variety of basics) or a class.
   
   However, if you treat your paper trimmer like a third arm and are quite comfortable with it - you've got to get this book! Well worth the price even at full retail!



2. An excellent book for all levels of scrapbookers, but especially so for those who are just beginning. Well done.



3. This book is well worth the price. It offers many unique ideas. It has the basics for your beginner scrapbookers, but is full of challenge ideas for apprentice or even seasoned scrapbookers!



4. Ever hear of *SHEAR-CROPPERS* ? "Creative P.C. (Photo Cropping) for Scrapbooks" is a book crammed with examples of "creative cropping" - - including new twists & challenges. My favorites are weaving, vertical panoramas and kaleidoscope mats.
   
   Patterns can be imitated or cleverly adapted for using your own treasured photographs. The fun is in trying out all of the different effects. Only in a "How-To" book would so many fill consecutive pages, but finished products can also be framed as gifts, &/or placed as decorative accents in homes.
   
   The book is obviously not the work of one individual - - many have worked together to demonstrate ideas for cropping in distinctive ways that will liven the pages of scrapbooks. It is all part of a thriving industry whose many enthusiasts love to learn & share new techniques. Even in the very small (15,071) Indiana county where Reviewer mcHAIKU lives, there are two shops and one 'commercial' individual in the largest town (population: 826)!
   This shows that you can get help anywhere to produce *BLUE RIBBON scrapbooks* - - and especially by using books such as "Creative Photo Cropping." (mcHaiku: 8.2.07)



5. I have been an avid scrapbooker for years and have yet to find a book that uses the pictures as the true page focal point instead of adding embellishments.... until I saw this book! There is page after page of unique ideas for cropping pictures that will guarantee that your pages will stand out from all the others.

5 comments about Joel Sternfeld: American Prospects.

1. if you want to know where the comtemporary obsession with large format color "street" work came from, this is it. newer books, by artists like alec soth and other color documentary artists, are excellent, important books, but it must at least be noted that the true groundbreakers were working a generation ago, putting out these kinds of books before it was the accepted trend. and simply put, this work along with shore's 'uncommon places' and eggleston's 'guide', are still, in my opinion, unsurpassed.
   
   on top of that, the size and reproduction quality of this book are mind-blowing. i can't imagine any photography fan not loving this book, or any serious student not wanting it (for a decent price, of course, which this actually is with the discount.)



2. JOEL IS A GOOD NAME AND THIS IS A FABOULOS WORK.This man is travelling a lot!!!I want only says that J.Sternfeld is able to meet people and discover particulary little object too that can be fundamental for go inside these pictures,he use colour in a cool way too,soft traditional in colours but in meanings is not really traditional expecially if we related his work in the world of landscape's photography.He use landscape like it was reportage.It is a way for put something else inside.That picture could be sometime strong somentime enchanting but always are intresting me.Put something strange in your picture and maybe that landscape could change his own value.
   I like a lot
   ciaoooooo



3. What a refreshing twist on the usual coffee table photography book. Sternfeld's photographs of the natural and manmade environment are so interesting. They almost have an old-fashioned hand-colored postcard-feel to them, but the images are often startlingly futuristic. Great contrasts of the ugly and rusting and vacant with beautiful natural landscapes. The publishers did a wonderful job of cleanly presenting the photos to speak for themselves and putting all the verbiage up front.



4. The title of this review suggests that I am exaggerating, but I promise that I am not. This book of photography blew me away the first time I opened it. How had I gone for so long without hearing of Joel Sternfeld?
   
   This book is full of large, beautifully printed color photographs of a quality I couldn't have expected. Each image is beautifully thought out and perfectly executed. The photographs are sometimes humorous, sometimes somber, and always carry a visual impact. Stephen Shore is an obvious point of reference; both photographers were working with similar materials right around the same time, both traveling the country capturing their view of America. I find Sternfeld's photographs to be placed on a somewhat grander scale, while Shore's photos suggest a more offhand manner. Both have a permanent place on my bookshelf.
   
   I can't recommend this book highly enough, I suggest that anyone interested in serious photography buy it right away.



5. Every thing it's all rigth, but
   Not to send to me never more with DHL, it is a true disaster.
   I order 3 items the same day.(My country it's Italy)
   The first: Uncommon places by Stephen Shore it has been delivered after single 6 days.(thanks,thanks, thanks, thanks, UPS)
   The other two "5X7" by William Eggleston and "American Prospects" by Joel Sternfeld. It has been delivered after very 16 days seeeexteeeeen days!!!!
   (The DHL disaster!!!!!)
   However, thanks Amazon
   Gastone Scarabello

5 comments about The Camera Phone Book: How to Shoot Like a Pro, Print, Store, Display, Send Images, Make a Short Film.

1. Originally saw this book in Wired . It showed me how to get the most out of my camera phone, and got me to look into a higher res camera phone. If I could, I'd give it 4.5 stars, It fails to get 5 stars because it's a bit on the short side.



2. Dont be deceived by the size of this book. It is information packed and written in a concise brief manner that makes it an easy afternoon read. Almost everything you ever need to know about how to fully exploit your camera phone is in this book. It contains lots of URLs to websites that will enhance your photo taking. This is by far the best book I have read. Reading the book is fast. But researching the websites and trying out the new things will take a life time.



3. Very short book with little actual advice on how to shoot good cell phone pictures. Most of the information is available for free online. Not worth the money.



4. I would imagine that there are more camera phones than any other. Based on the photos posted on Flickr (and other photo sharing sites), there are a few of us that could use some advice on how to take better pictures using our camera phones, especially me.
   
   The Camera Phone Book: How to Shoot Like a Pro, Print, Store, Display, Send Images, Make a Short Film by Aimee Baldridge, with photographs by Robert Clark, is a small book loaded with information on nearly every aspect of your camera phone. All of the photos in the book were taken by Robert Clark, using his camera phone, which helps to show you that you can take good pictures. Maybe not of the caliber of Clark's, but you will have the tools.
   
   Contents:
   Chapter 1: Choosing a Camera Phone
   Chapter 2: Taking Pictures
   Chapter 3: After the Snap
   Chapter 4: The Camera Phone Community
   Chapter 5: Troubleshooting
   
   Baldridge packs a lot of information in 158 pages. As this is thin book, it is a perfect addition to your computer bag as a reference. I never thought about my camera phone, but Chapter 1 will show you that it is not a minor feature, especially if you are going to use it as your primary camera. How to frame and think about your photos is a major part of Chapter 2. Don't just point and shoot; lighting, background, and framing play a large role in a good picture. Chapter 3 will provide you with the tools for printing and storing your photos as well as improving them. Online communities, blogs, and mobile photo sites are the leading topics of Chapter 4. Some of the sites are well known, but others are specifically geared to users of camera phones. Finally, if you have issues with your camera phone, Baldridge provides plenty of tips and hints to resolving your issues in Chapter 5. Each chapter is loaded with web links; you will probably spend a lot of time surfing the listed sites. Including the photos of Robert Clark, all taken with a camera phone, shows the reader the possibilities and reinforces the text.
   
   I get lucky with my camera phone (and my digital camera). Using this book, I should take away some of the luck and replace it with a little skill. At least I will have a better understanding of how to take a good picture. That, for me, makes this a worthwhile book. But it also opens the door to photo editing tools and online sources for additional information as well as sites dedicated to camera phone art. Small as it is, this book covers a lot of ground and does so quite well; from choosing your camera phone to participating in online communities, this book has nearly all aspects of your camera phone covered. But if you want to take away one thing away from this book, Baldridge's "Ten Rules of Thumb" for taking better pictures is worth the price. This is an excellent guide to your camera phone and one that will help you get more out of it.



5. I believe this book is perfect for anyone exploring the emerging trend of cameraphone photography. If you are skeptical of this trend, I believe this book will be even more relevant for you. Imagine any photography 101 book you've purchased in the past and now imagine it was written for users of camera phones. The authors do a great job of covering many aspects of the topic from "equipment" specs to shooting tips, and provide online references that will further validate that "mobile photography / cameraphone photography" is emerging and hear to stay.

No comments about Hot Rod Pin-Ups II: Gearhead Girls and Dragstrip Dolls.

2 comments about Atget, Paris (Taschen 25th Anniversary Edition).

1. This is one of the more unusual books on my shelves, in that physically it is designed to bear a resemblence on its exterior to some travel guides. The photograph above doesn't do it justice. The material is kivar-like, and his famous photograph of the entrance to the Moulin Rouge is tinted in red and yellow. Inside, the photographs are arranged thematically, according such topics as Salesman and Traders on the Streets of Paris, or Trades, Shops, and Window Displays, or interiors of Parisian homes, or, my favorite, Old Paris.

   As the introduction of the book points out, Atget was the great photographic recorder of Old Paris. It is to Paris of the turn of the 19th to the 20th century what Weegee was to lower Manhattan. The pictures in this book are nothing short of remarkable, and to look at them for any length of time helps transport one, to the extent that that is possible, to a world that no longer exists. This is not beautiful, genteel Paris. It isn't the Paris of Proust. It is more the Paris of Baudelaire fifty years down the road, the Paris of Toulouse-Latrec.

   This without any question the finest inexpensive edition of Atget's photographs currently available, and since Atget is the predominant photographer of the Paris of a hundred years ago, the best inexpensive book of photographs of Old Paris.




2. Eugene Atget is a wonderful photographer and you can find many important images in this book. The book included 3 languages (English, French and German)Enjoy...

5 comments about If I Had a Horse: How Different Life Would Be.

1. this is a wonderful book whether you own a horse or not. there are so many lessons to be learned, it was hard to do more than just read a page or a quote and then put it down and contemplate the lesson. horses have so much to teach us if we just allow it. this book opens up our minds to the possibilities of these lessons. beautifully written. carefully chosen quotes and wonderful photography. i find i refer to it often and it slows me down to remember what is really important to me.



2. If you know a horse crazy kid, buy them this book and they'll cherish it forever. The cover image is absolutely stunning, and just a taste of what is inside. Beautiful photography, moving writing and inspiring quotes. It's not for little kids, but a horse crazy girl about 9 or 10 will devour it just as much as that horse crazy 40 something. Even if you horses aren't a big part of your life, animal lovers will enjoy it just the same. The included DVD is just icing on the cake. When I was a horse obsessed 10 year old, I would cut pictures of horses out of magazines, newspapers, or anything I could get my hands on. This is the book I wish I had back then.



3. Quote from the book:
   "One of the earliest religious disappointments in a young girl's life devolves upon her unanswered prayer for a horse" (Phyllis Theroux)
   
   Indeed.
   
   The author doesn't quite capture the essence of life long yearning to be with horses; to always dream of owning your own horse and to have that dream just out of your grasp. The above quote from the book comes close to those feelings - and overall the book comes close, but doesn't quite hit the mark.
   
   The title is a bit misleading, or perhaps my expectations got the better of me; the author already lives with horses, has horses of her own, and is in daily contact with horses. Thus, I couldn't quite make the bridge between "If I had a horse" and "how different life would be" within the pages of this book. The text and quotes are more zen like in approach and philosophy, rather than describing life-altering changes.
   
   Nevertheless, this is a BEAUTIFUL book. The text is honest, thoughtful, spiritual and philosophical. The photographs in this book are equally beautiful, and truly compliment the text superbly. The photographer has done a wonderful job capturing the essence, heart and soul of equus.
   
   This is a slim book, less than 1/2" thick, and only 128 pages, but printed in hardcover, and bound on heavy semi-gloss paper. Every single page features full-colour photographs of horses, with the author's insightful text and selection of quotes from various sources.
   
   My only complaint (and it perhaps is a minor one) is that the stars and inspirati of this book - the horses themselves - go unmentioned. The author goes to the trouble to name her sources for the various quotations used, in a bibliography at the back of the book, but there is no mention of who the horses are, their names, what breed, where they're from, etc.
   
   This book also came with a DVD titled "The Beauty of Horses", featuring a generous 21- minutes of live film footage of various horse breeds, from Arabians to Gypsy Vanners, Friesians, Appaloosa's and other horses. The music is a little annoying - but not overly so. How much better it would have been to let the horses speak for themselves in this DVD: the galloping of hooves, nostrils flaring and blowing, the clip-clop of hooves along a beach, horses neighing and snorting, tails swishing, etc. Instead the filmmaker opted to overdub with music and voiceover. This is perhaps a minor complaint, as the DVD production values are really well done, and the horses captured are beautiful to look at and inspiring.
   
   All in all, this is a wonderful addition to add to anyone's equine library, and I am sure horselover's young and old will enjoy looking at this book.
   
   ~appaloosa
   11/03/2006



4. Most likely the best book on horses I own. It is not a horsemanship guide on the "how to's" of owning a horse, but an insirational, moving, motivating book with exceptional photo's and beautiful written words describing why women have the dream of owning a horse and that it is ok do dream this dream especially as an adult.



5. I purchased this book for my daughter - and avid horsewoman. We loved the video and the beautiful photography. The text and the quotes inside are an added bonus to this wonderful book.

5 comments about Digital Video For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech)).

1. The "Dummies" folks seem to be able to get it right pretty consistently, and they also seem to be willing to update titles with some frequency -- publish a new edition, that means.
   
   When I bought this book, I bought another on the same topic from another publisher and neglected to check the date of publication. Well, it was antique, relatively speaking, so when I picked this one up, suddenly things started to make a lot of sense.
   
   Also, the author seems to be able to cover three editing products without a lot of repetition. This is a good, workmanlike job.



2. If you're new to video editing, it is the one for you. It'S a good start



3. Great reference guide for video production especially for beginners. Simple easy to read and apply!



4. I found this book really did not provide much technical detail at all and was very disappointing. If you have even a basic knowledge of simple home electronics then you, like me, may be really unhappy with this. Of course, the title says it's "For Dummies" so I guess I should have payed attention to the warning, but instead I wasted my money.



5. This book is good if you're an absolute beginner, but I was hoping for alot more info. It mainly teaches you how to use Windows moviemaker.

5 comments about How to Be President: What to Do and Where to Go Once You're in Office.

1. This is an interesting overview of the responsibilities and perks of being the president of the United States. I don't think it's something Sam Donaldson is going to wish he'd had when he was skulking around the White House. And if anyone actually elected chief executive needs a book like this to find his (obligatory: "or her") way around, well, we're in worse shape than I thought. But for a general audience, it's not a bad, or time-consuming, way to get a better picture of what being president actually entails.

   I'm not entirely clear on whether this book was explicitly written for a juvenile audience (the cataloguing info doesn't seem to indicate that), but it sort of reads that way. Some of the questions it addresses are childish (Do I have to make my own bed? Who walks my dog?) or else things the president probably need not concern himself (obligatory: "or herself") about, like how do I order a new desk chair, or do I get to keep the pens. Other sections, though, like the discussion of the president's daily schedule, the interaction with the Secret Service, and the layout and functions of various White House spaces, were pretty interesting. But does the Secret Service really refer to the "First Spouse," or "FS"?

   "How to be President" is a quick and easy read that many people may find entertaining and broadly illuminating. I would categorize it as best suited for young adults for whom "So You Want to Be President" by Judith St. George (2000) is a little too lightweight. Adults looking for something with more depth, but not heavily weighted by politics, might want to check out a title mentioned in this book's bibliography, "Real Life at the White House" by Claire and John Whitcomb (2002).




2. Stupid, trivial and worthless toilet paper, this book takes a few basic facts and reduces what was once a position of respect into one of disrespect - it's all just some big joke about a job with perks - as opposed to public service. Don't waste your money



3. This slim, poorly written, poorly illustrated, poorly referenced paste-up might have a few interesting tidbits, but it's so error-filled that it should not even be idly browsed. A few examples:
   
   * "There is no official White House barber" (p 16). Don't tell Milton Pitts.
   * "Offices in the West Wing are usually ... windowless" (p 49). Huh? On Williams' own diagram, 3 executive offices are windowless and 16 have windows.
   * "The oval shape of [the Blue Room] inspired the shape of the Oval Office, when the West Wing was constructed in 1902" (p 21). In 1902 the president's new office was a rectangle. The oval-shaped ones were later additions.
   * He says Nixon filled in FDR's pool (p 49). Almost right: it's still there, just floored-over.
   * He calls the Eisenhower Executive Office Building by its former name, then says it's accessible by tunnel (p 45). It's not. There is a tunnel to the Treasury Building.
   * He gives a chatty but wrong history of presidential bowling lanes (p 113).
   
   With so many patent errors and no references, the rest of his "info" has the ring of guesswork. (Williams has "written for the New York Times"? Written what!)
   
   The book is lousy with fillers: A box on the colors in the U.S. flag. An entire page on HOW TO PUT YOUR HAND OVER YOUR HEART. Pages advising how to tell a joke, tie a tie, remember names. A list of some White House paintings - not photos of them, mind you, just a list.
   
   The illustrations by Nancy Leonard are a computer graphic disaster.
   * She cannot be bothered to draw a round oval, but ends up with flat parts in the oval rooms, the south portico, the elliptical drives, and the Oval Office rug. Fireplace and furniture icons are grossly oversized and oddly angled.
   * Her colonnade pillars come in bunches between gaps.
   * Her graphic program apparently could not handle tricky angles in rooms, so these are represented by what look like potato chip outlines.
   * She clearly relied on the Independent Counsel's West Wing map and uses that labeling (and mis-labeling). The famous press briefing room, therefore, is called "West Terrace Upper Level" without a hint of its actual function.
   * For decorative facing pages, she colors her floor diagrams to look like old-fashioned blueprints, but neglects to reverse the colors of the white and gray squares she used to make "holes" for doors in the wall lines, leaving a floor with weird, massive boxes all over it.
   * Other illustrations are worse than clip-art. The TelePrompTer diagram implies that the president stands on a glass screen.
   
   Williams doesn't mention the East Wing, the third residential floor, or the sub-basements, apparently because these were not in the Zweifels' "White House in Miniature" book and so do not exist for him. For that matter, bills, vetoes, executive branch appointments, judicial nominations, treaties, and other stuff a president should know how to "do" aren't explained. (For example, can you veto a bill by phone? Don't ask Williams.)
   
   A book like this could have been delightful. This one is vapid, ugly, and wrong.



4. Fun, quick read on everything from how to get your dry cleaning done to ordering breakfast at the White House (and who pays for it). Gives the essentials; how to salute, location of the "red phone" and who carries the "football". Lots of fun facts - it makes you feel like an insider. It's a short book, and that's the only real downside. I would love for it to be longer and in more depth. A great gift for fans of the television show - The West Wing as well as anyone interested in politics and the presidency.



5. Very funy and informative. Makes you get a real feel for the perks, and hassles, of being president. Makes a great 35th birthday present.

5 comments about Diane Arbus: An Aperture Monograph.

1. The photography of Diane Arbus has always intrigued me. Her photographs are beautiful to me not because of the composition or lighting or any tools a photographer might use. They intrigue me because of her subject matter and even more so because of the intentions behind her subject matter. She takes pictures of people that are not considered beautiful, people that are "freaks" or "weirdos", or in some way different. She wants the viewer to identify with her subject in some way. In a way she takes the ugly, the thing that you're afraid to look at on the street and forces you to look at it and beyond that see it as art. She is "not evading facts, not evading what it really looks like". I agree with her purpose. It is best to show thing as they really are and to photograph something familiar or something often looked at is sort of boring to me.

   For her, taking pictures was not about the final image - because she believed that anything you plan never turns out the way you intend anyways - but it was about the experience. It was about learning and making connections with her subjects. This was interesting to me because I never thought of photography that way. Mostly when I photograph I am so concerned with the final product, but now I realize that I actually enjoy the process of taking the pictures and dislike the developing. So I see photography in the same way, it is some how meditative and the actual action of photographing helps me release a certain kind of creative energy that I harbor.




2. A rather interesting, yet democratic photographer, Diane Arbus was an individual who was never afraid. She was a motivational and influential photographer whose life possessed no limits. Her subject matter was unique in that the pictures she took were on the abnormalities of life. These subjects centered mostly on freaks such as midgets, drag queens, giants, hookers, nudists, and drugees. Taking pictures such as these shows that she was a person who was never afraid to display the irregularities of life to the world around us.

   Diane Arbus lived life one day, one moment at a time. In this book, I get the feeling that her pictures show a meaning in the way she captured life, not just focusing on the photograph alone. Her subjects depicted on each page makes the viewer wonder how she got herself as well as her subjects in that position. Were they cooperative or not? Did she tell them to strike a pose or did they do it on their own? Each of her pictures in the book have a story behind it and some would seem more interesting than others. From her book, I see that the significance of her life and her photography is through this quote "The thing that's most important to know is that you never know. You're always sort of feeling your way."




3. I first came across "An Aperture Monograph" by accident, many years ago. The images were astonishing, and when I later read Susan Sontag's famous essay, I immediately recognized the photographer she was referring to. Arbus' images are unforgettable, and do not diminish in power with time. Wisely, those in control of her estate have not released any of these works as posters, t-shirts, or other consumer items -- you have to buy the book or attend an exhibit if you want to see them. It's possible that the artist's sensibility is so powerful that even with repeated viewing, the photographs would retain their power to surprise.
   
   The exhibit "A Family Album" (currently at the Portland Museum of Art) contains several of Arbus' proof sheets. They demonstrate that Arbus (like many photographers) took many shots of the same subject, in similar poses, before choosing the one image that expressed what she wished to convey. What she was searching for was not so much a dwarf, a transvestite, twins, or any other subject, but her own artistic vision. Sometimes these are unhappy people in opulent surroundings, or people we might think should be miserable and hopeless, conveying a strange sense of command.
   
   It would be a trite observation to say that each of these photographs implies a "story" behind the subject. Any photograph can do that. We are, of course, curious about them. Why do so many of the couples seem distant from each other? What is the older man doing with the boy on the park bench? Others are deliberately suggestive: the nude couple in the forest clearly evokes Adam and Eve; the flower girl at a wedding, a fairy princess emerging from the mist. What saves them from appearing posed or artificial (which they certainly were) is Arbus' ability to give the simultaneous impression that these were candid snapshots. This multi-level presence is the mark of a true artist, in total control of her medium.
   
   The book concludes with several untitled photographs taken at a home for the developmentally disabled. The first of these shows two elderly women, the first couple in the book who seemed truly present with each other, and happy. The final photograph, of a masked woman leading a group through a field, suggests nothing less than the progress of civilization itself.
   
   Arbus' work forces the viewer to look at the world and themselves more deeply. The most apt description is from Rilke's poem, Torso of an Archaic Apollo:
   
   "...nor would this star have shaken the shackles off,
   bursting with light, until there is no place
   that does not see you. You must change your life."



4. It is not overstating the case to say that creating these photographs cost Diane Arbus her life, her suicide followed soon after they were assembled. When you study them, (and you study them, you don't look at them), you quickly understand why. Arbus was a brittle and emotionally volatile woman long before taking these haunting images, the product of a privileged upbringing who cut her teeth in the world of fashion photography, making perfect-looking people look even more perfect. Having refined her technical skills she ventured into the opposite side of that world, seeking out the people society hid and desperately tried to forget.
   
   Arbus said famously that most of us live in fear of a traumatic disaster while her subjects had already endured theirs and were, in a sense, aristocrats as a consequence - free from the fear of being unwanted - secure in the knowledge that they most certainly were unwanted. Arbus was so obsessed with presenting unadulterated reality that she never cropped her photos, indeed, the "live area" of the prints goes beyond the photo and includes some of the film's border - to prove the picture wasn't cropped. She dove into the dark side like an obsessive child at a circus freak show, nothing was disturbing enough to satisfy her and even the commonplace became bizarre by the time she was done with it.
   
   Arbus was passionate about photographing the mentally retarded, but giants, transsexuals, twins, triplets, skinheads, nudists and other bits of social flotsam and jetsam lured her as well. Whether it was a boy holding hand grenades or a teenage couple looking like creepy miniaturized adults, Diane Arbus gravitated for the slice of humanity certain to engender revulsion. Her genius lay in the ability to bring nothing to the proceedings, she approached her subjects on their own terms. Because she did this, the subjects did not "rise" to meet the camera, they remained fixed in their personal nightmares. This made for profound, well-crafted photographs. Arbus didn't see beauty or pathos in her subjects, simply their reality. She invited us to behold what we dread and honor the dignity of her subjects. We are able to do that because we are more or less healthy, and because we can close the book when it becomes too painful; she could not.
   
   Every Arbus photograph is a self-portrait; every lost, hideous freak was Diane Arbus looking in the mirror. For the most part it seems that the people in her pictures survived her completely unsentimental scrutiny, she did not. What's more unsettling is that the popularity of these pictures gave rise to a wave of young copycat photographers who thought it was "cool" to photograph the disadvantaged, disabled, and mentally ill. The copycats never understood that for it to be art you have to care, you have to get involved. Arbus got too involved.



5. I bought this book as a birthday gift for my twenty-one year old niece. She is a photographer who would very much like to take photographs professionally. I read about Diane Arbus in a news story because there was a movie which was recently released into theaters, which gave a fictional account of her life. She seemed like a very strong woman, with a lot of the same tastes as my niece. When I got the book it was wrapped, and I was a little disappointed. But when I gave it to her, I had a chance to look through it. The photographs are top-notch, and striking. Arbus' subject matter and composition are striking. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in photography.