[Leica] A must have book.

[bdcolen at earthlink.net (B. D. Colen)]

"the fat baby - stories by eugene richards," arguably belongs on any
list of the first five 'must-have' books for anyone interested in
serious documentary photography/photojournalism. (The other four? Robert
Frank's "The Americans," "HCB - The Man, The Image & The World,"
"Requiem," and "Dream Street: W. Eugene Smith's Pittsburgh Project.")

"the fat baby" is a massive book - more than 300 images, 17 text
stories, and about 420 pages, in which Richards tells stories about, or
connect to, the groups of images from an assortment of assignments and
projects that have been shot and reported since the early 90s. Most of
these photos have not been in books before.

The text is not about the photos, and there are no captions. Instead,
the texts tell the stories of the people, and Richard's experiences,
connected to the photos. Some of the texts are extremely
self-revelatory, and a number of them are extremely moving. While not as
good a writer as he is a photographer, he is still a very good writer -
a far better writer than anyone who is such an outstanding photographer
should be expected to be.

This truly is a seminal work, and would be well worth the high price of
admission ($100 - about $65 on Amazon) even if one only got the final
story and photos documenting Richards' last trip to his boyhood home to
help his elderly father finish packing up for a move to Florida.

B. D.



-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of
TED GRANT
Sent: Monday, March 29, 2004 12:47 PM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: Re: [Leica] In praise of the people on this list



Don Dory said:

 Subject: [Leica] In praise of the people on this list

> This is a wonderful list to mine information.  You want to know about 
> gem stones, we have an expert.  You want to know about the latest or 
> the oldest, or the rarest in Leica, we have experts.  You want to know
> aboutFormula One, we have experts.  You want to know about 
> journalism, we
> have experts.  The same with astronomy, chemistry, physics, medicine,
> internet mechanics, obscure programming languages or tricks or 
> shortcutsthis list has experts.
> 
> So, enjoy the off topic conversation, the person you are talking to 
> probably wrote the book, or built the thingy, or designed the 
> procedure.<<

Hi Don,

Right on absolutely time after time. Not to mention when one travels
across North America or the rest of the planet there are folks who will
give you a hand and or direction to help send you along the way to a
successful shoot.

And yep on occasion we rip at each other like a howling p
ack of mad dogs that goes with the life and times of the internet
unfortunately. But this is the best damn internet family one can have
for making true friends and family!!

An unnfortunate medical sitation arose while I'm here in Scottsdale /
Phoenix, Arizona and a LUG family member came to my rescue, Dr. Steve
Barbour had me looked after right smartly and things are cool now.
Unfortunately we've had to cut asssignment and R&R time short and return
home a week earlier.

But this assistance points up the value of this tight nit group of human
beings far more than many realize. And to that end it's a great big
thank you to Brian Reid for creating this incredible system.

And without question a huge thanks to Dr. Steve Barbour for finding and
arranging some special care without any fuss or muss.

Thanks Steve.

ted

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