Just too good to mail (5/5)

 

I've been waiting a long, long time for a book like this.  In most of the books I have on Deco (or Streamline or Moderne) there are always one or two of these postcards included, they were, in many cases, the only visual surviving examples of what the buildings looked like.  Patricia Bayer has done us all a favor with this delightful book of 264 postcards.

Perhaps the Art Deco title is slightly misleading because as I looked through the pages Streamline seemed much more appropriate.  So many of the buildings have those wonderful curves, right angles, glass blocks and occasional porthole windows that were part of any proper Streamline building.  I always thought Arrasmith's stunning Greyhound terminals were the ultimate examples of the style.

A really nice feature in the book are postcards of Streamline buildings in parts of the world where you really wouldn't expect to see them: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Yokohama, Japan; Pula, now Croatia; Kharkov, Ukraine; Benalla, Australia; Casablanca, Morocco; Copenhagen, Denmark; Caracas, Venezuela and several in Britain.  Page eighty-nine has a postcard of the remarkable Italian Colonia Fara beachfront building designed in 1935 and still standing, pure streamline and looking like it was transported from Los Angeles.

The author covers so much with this postcard selection, exterior and interiors of buildings, motels, transport, commerce and industry, world's fairs, it's all here.  Near the back of the book, there are eight pages of perforated cards ready to mail (though far better, I think, to frame them).  At the very back are thirty pages of captions for all the cards, full of fascinating detail about the buildings torn down over the years.

This is a gem of a book for those who love the Deco/Streamline/Moderne style.  Surely there must be enough of these postcards for a volume two! 

Finding his way (5/5)

Color counts. The Steidl edition on the left and the 1992 edition of Ancient and modern (Random House). Both were printed with a 175 screen.

A wonderful and very welcome reprint of 'Chromes', which was originally published by Steidl in 2011 (and these first edition copies are alarmingly expensive). A box set of three books with 432 pages and 344 Eggleston photos. Several of these have been published before, especially in the now well-known 'William Eggleston's guide' (1976) and 'Ancient and modern' (1992).

The first photo in book one is the head, shoulders and pillow of the sleeping man, and the last photo in book three is virtually the same shot only this time his eyes are open and looking at the camera (has the book's editor assumed that all these intriguing photos will have opened the reader's eyes?). Eggleston is now considered the master of making commonplace come alive with his photos. They were taken in Memphis and the surrounding countryside between 1969 and 1974 with about sixty percent as exterior shots of a slightly decaying man-made America. The colors can vary enormously suggesting that the photographer was finding his way with compositions and color. His famous shot of the red ceiling and one bulb light fitting is repeated in book three (page 117) but this time the ceiling is a vibrant blue.

What I really liked about these books is their large size  (twelve and a half inches square) so that the photos even with their generous margins are equally large and printed with a 175 screen. It's such a pleasure to look at great photos presented in this format.