The affluent's snapper

The book is a celebration of where the affluent escape to, whether it's surf, snow, pools, sand, isles or parks (this is the chapter sequence). Gray Malin takes to the air for most of the photos throughout the book but I thought his shots rather bland, especially when compared to the superb aerial work of Alex MacLean (his Over book was also published by Abrams). People enjoying the surf and snow don't come out too well when photographed from a great height which means the images lack a focal point for the viewer. Parks from the air are more positive because they include buildings and vegetation.

Despite the book being a rather lavish production with matt art paper for the two hundred screen printing (and when was the last time you saw blocking on the edges of a title, in this case it's silver on three sides) the layouts and sequencing seem very haphazard and unimaginative. The photos that introduce the chapters have headings on them making the type unreadable, captions are frequently on photos despite being surrounded by plenty of white space, descriptive text on grey panels are butted into images.

A very disappointing book of photos but I think the readership it's aimed at will enjoy it despite its shortcomings.