Re: [Leica] Natchwey's Inferno

["Gerry Walden" <gerrywalden@cwcom.net>]

I don't mind admitting that I sat in the book shop trying to turn pages with
tears in my eyes.   My wife wanted to look and I said 'Oh no you don't!'
This is one hell of a book - and maybe the emphasis should be on 'hell'!

Gerry


- ----- Original Message -----
From: Paul Chefurka <Paul_Chefurka@pmc-sierra.com>
To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Sent: 20 April 2000 01:01
Subject: [Leica] Natchwey's Inferno


> Hmmm.  What to say, what to say?  Everybody happy tonight?
>
> I just received my copy of James Natchwey's "Inferno".
>
> I was pretty excited, going to pick up the parcel - Chapters Online had
come
> through in record time.  It was quite a heavy parcel: an innocuous brown
> cardboard box.  Bigger than I expected.
>
> I brought it home, cut the tape, removed the packing and pulled out a
> cellophane-wrapped book.  Natchwey had said in the interview I read that
he
> wanted a book people couldn't ignore - one they had to deal with; so he
made
> it big and heavy.  He succeeded.
>
> I unwrapped it.  The cover is imposing:  somber and tasteful in black
cloth,
> like an expensive funeral parlor.  "Quite the presentation" I said to
myself
> as my wife and I settled down on the living room floor.
>
> I opened the cover.
>
>
> Sweet Jesus.
>
>
> I remember my sister hitting me with a baseball bat once when we were
kids,
> by accident.  Natchwey did not do this by accident.
>
> As we looked through the first dozen photos I had this curious feeling of
> being sucked out of my body through the eyes, down through the page
surface
> and into the mouth of hell.  Trite phrase?  You try looking at this stuff,
> you try coming up with something snappy and original.
>
> Plowing ahead, past picture after picture, I found my hands less and less
> able to turn the pages.  Paralyzed by the moral implications, I suppose.
> All I know is that having to look at each picture for longer and longer
just
> made it worse.  It didn't even help that after a while I couldn't see the
> photos very clearly any more.
>
> Finally, in self-defense, I tried to look at them technically.  Perfect
> compositions.  Every one a decisive moment.  Perfect technique - razor
sharp
> eyes, long tonal ranges.  Dispassionate, the photographer not needing to
> editorialize except through his presence and his willingness to take the
> pictures.  My self-imposed detachment held me together for another dozen
> images.
>
> We looked at 60 pages out of 500.  I have no idea how long it's going to
> take me to get through this book.  I can't believe there's a book like
this
> on the market, and I'll be eternally grateful to Tim Atherton for posting
> the link to the interview that inspired me to buy it.
>
> This is the hardest book I've ever tried to look at.  I'll think of it as
> calisthenics for my conscience - maybe that will help.  Would I recommend
> it?  Not on your life.  If this is your sort of book, you won't need my
> recommendation.
>
> Paul Chefurka