liralen's review
4.0
McCurry's work is phenomenal, and some of his portraits rank among my favourite photographs. No surprise, then, to find this chock-full of arresting images.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, there are volumes contained here -- although I am somewhat torn. The absolute minimum text accompanies these photos -- city, country, year. You can get an incredible amount from the pictures (many of which look as though they could have been taken on movie sets), but I was also left with a lot of questions. The photos taken in the U.S. skew towards counterculture, for example: for how many of the other photos, in cultures I know little or nothing about, could the same be said? (Does it matter?) I guess I just tend to figure that even when photos can stand on their own -- and certainly these can -- in a collection, in a book, there's room to elaborate. (Wanting more text is a common theme of my reviews of photography books...)
All that said -- highly recommend. I wish I could fall into some of these people's worlds for a time.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, there are volumes contained here -- although I am somewhat torn. The absolute minimum text accompanies these photos -- city, country, year. You can get an incredible amount from the pictures (many of which look as though they could have been taken on movie sets), but I was also left with a lot of questions. The photos taken in the U.S. skew towards counterculture, for example: for how many of the other photos, in cultures I know little or nothing about, could the same be said? (Does it matter?) I guess I just tend to figure that even when photos can stand on their own -- and certainly these can -- in a collection, in a book, there's room to elaborate. (Wanting more text is a common theme of my reviews of photography books...)
All that said -- highly recommend. I wish I could fall into some of these people's worlds for a time.
letitiaharmon's review
5.0
McCurry is my favorite photographer, and this is probably my favorite of his collections. The vibrancy of his portraits (no photoshopping!) do not pull me into an exotic and foreign world: they thrust it at me! He so humanizes images that should be bizarre to my western mindset that I feel I highly identify with these strangers. I could go on forever. They are so beautiful.
danihaupt's review
4.0
I wish there were background stories to the people portrayed in this book. There's a lot of children, as well as people in vulnerable situations and with reserved expressions, which makes me wonder about consent. Even so I enjoyed going through this book and I really love his colorful style of photography.
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