Tales from the River Bank

It is interesting to contrast Kander’s ‘Yangtze, The Long River’ with another book featuring a mighty river, Alec Soth’s ‘Sleeping by the Mississippi’. In his book, Soth has chosen to do a series of portraits showing the personality of each person who dwells beside America’s mightiest waterway. Each person featured is named. Soth, through shared …

Teenage Nightmare

Many of us out there have for a long time advocated the return of birching and national service for the young. But few would have gone as far as to suggest we have them battle to the death. More fool us. This sterling idea has been put to good use in the plot of the …

Moonrise Kingdom: Wake me when it’s over.

Everywhere I go I see rave reviews for Wes Anderson’s ‘Moonrise Kingdom’ “Funny, bittersweet and as distinct as you’d expect” say Empire Online, “Fleet, funny and impeccably orchestrated” say Total Film, “ A charming tale” say The Guardian. On Rotten Tomatoes meanwhile, it has an amazing a 96% approval rating. Not only is it a …

The Long River

The coming power of a changing China is beautifully exposed in Nadav Kander’s book ‘Yangtze, The Long River’ Half-built flyovers, tower blocks and bridges litter the rivers banks, as Kander takes us on a 4,100-mile journey of the waterway that is at the very heart of China. These enormous industrial structures are often contrasted with …

Loss and Landscape

Rebecca Norris Webb describes her home state of South Dakota as a “ sparsely populated frontier state on the Great Plains with more buffalo, pronghorn, coyotes, mule deer, ring-necked pheasants and prairie dogs than people.” This land of wide-open spaces, solitude and silence was the subject of her new book ‘My Dakota’. However, fate stepped …

A Journey Worth Taking

Maybe it’s some strange ‘Britain nostalgia’ I’m going through but I was touched by Harry Cory Wright’s photos of the landscape of my native land, in his book ‘Journey Through the British Isles’. In many ways this kind of photography is usually an example of exactly what I don’t like; very highly finished images with …

Just say “Yes Panda”

Just a reminder of what an advertising campaign should be. A clear message executed in a funny or engaging way. With a Panda. It’s really that simple.

Forgive Me

I am an idiot. This fact has been confirmed by my refusal to see ‘The Kid with a Bike’ because I felt it would be ‘boring’. Luckily, I weakened in my resolve and went along to see the Dardenne brothers latest. Even then I loitered for some time outside before finally deciding to see it. …

In Wildness is the Preservation of the World

One of the first, if not the first, photography books I ever owned was by Eliot Porter. Primarily known for his landscape and nature imagery, the book I picked up that day was one based on his images of the state of Maine. My possession of the book lasted about 2 hours. I had a …

Remembrance of Things Past

Just been to see ‘Patience (After Sebald)’ a documentary based on the W.G.Sebald’s  ‘The Rings of Saturn. I’d like to say it does the book justice but unfortunately it doesn’t. Mind you that would be hard because ‘The Rings of Saturn’ is a masterpiece and extraordinary genre twister that is part travel book, part memoir, …