It wasn't a gas for me 1/5

On the right-hand page, the text runs over the bottom of the photo.

More heading and type over the photo, this is just so amateurish.

Cram it all in and never mind the design quality, a hopelessly messy spread.

This photo doesn't tell the reader anything.

Gas stations are everywhere in the world, especially in America (amazingly, about 150,000) and probably in China. Despite some intriguing designs in this book, they all have the common elements of pumps, and a cover from the elements. I thought the book was a very poor attempt at revealing these fascinating icons of the highway.

The title is basically full of photos and captions. There isn't a Contents page and the first few take a historical look at the origins of fueling stations. The book's longest section covers America with lots of photos, some in color, of the different architectural styles across the country. I liked the fourteen Tichnor printed postcards from the thirties and forties; the places shown used the postcards as advertising for the customers.  The rest of the pages show gas stations around the world with some very flamboyant European versions. 

I was very disappointed with the book's design; it just looked so amateurish. Frequently, text goes over photos and many of these have no captions, so they could be anywhere in the world. I get the impression that the publishers collected as many gas station photos as possible and just tipped them into the pages. This means that a lot of them aren't really worth using. The back pages Index is a good example of how bad the book is. It's arranged alphabetically by photographer (the largest entries are photo agencies AHG-Images, Alamy and Getty) rather than page numbers first. So, if you want to find out who took the photos of the lovely rest stop in Lochini, Georgia on pages 208-211 you'll have look through all the names until you find the page numbers. My copy of the book will shortly appear in a charity shop.                         

The ins and outs of tanks 5/5

I recently saw the movie Fury (directed by David Ayer and starring Brad Pitt) about a Sherman M4 tank and its crew during the Second World War. What intrigued me was how the crew worked in such a confined space so I bought the book. A big photo of the Sherman is shown on pages eighty-six and seven but turn over the page and I found twenty-six interior photos (all captioned). I think showing interior photos of several tanks (out of four hundred featured) is one of the strengths of the book.

Dorling-Kindersley has done their excellent presentation with this title (and it puts to shame most other publishers of image-driven books) and it's worth noting the title: a visual history. The contents are not descriptions of great tank battles or personal reminiscences of tank crews but page after page of photos (nicely as cutouts) revealing tanks through past decades.  Each has some brief technical details and a few words of background about the vehicle. Missing, I found, were any measurements and some tanks are impressively huge.

I liked the fourteen pages at the back of the book, looking at the tanks' evolution, engines, tracks and suspension, firepower, protection, anti-tank weapons and uniforms. These pages are followed by a glossary and index. DK's tank book is a fascinating look at a unique bit of military kit.

 

It's a colorful story 5/5

Color photography has been around long enough now to be considered an art form and publishers, usually in conjunction with exhibitions (like this one) have put out books on the history of the subject. The author concentrates on the photographer's creative output from the mid-thirties to the first decade of this century. The origins are not forgotten, the introduction mentions the first simple color work from 1851 and the Inventing color photography chapter reveals how individuals moved towards producing recognizable proper color work. Alfred Stieglitz is closely connected with the development and his 1904 'Moonrise, Mamaroneck NY' is on page eighteen and long considered the first art color photo.

The editorial format of the book has four essays, each followed by a portfolio of photos. The seventeen after the Invention chapter show a mix of images with mostly various browns as the dominant color. The next two chapters explore the commercial world of Kodak and how photographers were constantly experimenting with the idea. Ansel Adams concluded that his color work was no better than amateur snaps. All through the thirties and forties, the public saw color as a selling device, mainly in magazine ads. In 1935, Kodak introduced Kodachrome, which was very popular with the public but clearly not fine art. 

In the mid-seventies and into the eighties color was at last accepted. The portfolio following chapter three: Using color has work from the now world famous photographers: Christenberry, Samaras, Levitt, Eggleston, Shore, Meyerowitz, Divola, Sternfeld, Dow, Goldin, Sherman, Skoglund, Serrano and others. Chapter four considers how new tech has given photographers new technical challenges and also how the public can view their output. The chapter runs up to 2010, so the significant changes that AI might mean to photography are obviously not mentioned.

The book has a final fascinating fourteen-page section: From potatoes to pixels, which looks at the technical history of the genre. An excellent book that covers the same subject as this one and it was published at the same time is Color rush by Katherine Bussard (ISBN 978-1597112260).