1 review for:

Plossu, so long: vivre l'ouest américain, 1970-1985

Charles-Arthur Boyer, Bernard Plossu, Lewis Baltz

4.0 AVERAGE

davygibbs's review against another edition

4.0

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So, yep, the text in this book is French, as is the subtitle on the cover. If you're in it for the essay, do keep that in mind. However, if you're in it for the pictures, and you don't mind a small format book -- albeit one with some heft and plenty of charm -- I can't imagine you'll be disappointed. Another reviewer described the images here as "typical" and "nothing exceptional." I'd disagree. Plossu's eye is the MVP here. I love his openness, his total willingness to let just about anything captivate him, from billboards and shop windows to Hollywood streetscapes and condos dangling from mountainsides. There's consistency in the aesthetic -- grainy monochrome leaning slightly towards overexposure -- and in the thematic content (AMERICA! in all caps, exclamation point), but otherwise there is unlimited freedom, and that's part of the fun. One of the great photographic surveys of the American road trip, in my estimation. Highly recommended.