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georgemillership's review against another edition
5.0
I haven't shut up about this book for a whole year
elisefur's review against another edition
4.0
i first read this in 2008, and read it again over the last weekend. Dyer mentioned several times about prophecy and premonition in the photograph, which I didn't notice before and wonder why. Whereas Barthes invented the concept of punctum, Dyer was invested in finding coincidences, or a sense of inevitability of something occurring within the myriad of connections in American photography. Or creating hashtags. And how seen in these ways they reveal to us the human condition.
I definitely understand the author better in the second reading and see more of his over-interpretation and over-romantisising. But I also think it is worth reading because it is such a personal journey and a reminder that as humans embedded in the physical world we're meant to be partial.
I definitely understand the author better in the second reading and see more of his over-interpretation and over-romantisising. But I also think it is worth reading because it is such a personal journey and a reminder that as humans embedded in the physical world we're meant to be partial.
pinknantucket's review against another edition
3.0
As a photograph conservator I know a bit about WHAT a photograph is, a history of formats and all that, but my knowledge of the rest of it is somewhat lacking. So what better way to learn more, I thought, than to read what Geoff Dyer has to say on the matter? Because he's pretty cool and learned and all that.
Dyer follows various themes within photography that pique his interest—this is not an overarching "survey" of the art of photography. Instead, we learn to notice the role of hats in photography—particularly men's hats, which of course are not so often found in photographs these days—and white picket fences, barber shops, empty chairs and blind accordion players. We learn how photographers learned from each other, copied each other and paid tribute to each other. Dyer is most interested in the images taken by a photographer that "look like photographs taken by someone else". Also, we learn a bit about what photographers such as Stieglitz, Lange, Evans and Arbus thought about each other, and I love gossip.
I felt cast adrift a little at the start—needing a framework on which to hang things, as Dyer intentionally jumps around from theme to theme, rather than following a more obvious (but duller) chronological structure. I might need to read it again, and also to draw up my diagram of date ranges, to better see who were contemporaries and who influenced who. It has kind of inspired me to embark on my own photographic exploration, in other words.
In the acknowledgments Dyer notes that his wife wishes there was a bit more of himself in the book, and I think I would have appreciated that too—it is still a very personal approach to photography but Dyer's own reactions, prevarications, doubts etc were part of what made "Out of Sheer Rage" so enjoyable. In any case I would like everything to be explained to me by Geoff Dyer and can only hope he is planning a book about sub-atomic particles next.
Dyer follows various themes within photography that pique his interest—this is not an overarching "survey" of the art of photography. Instead, we learn to notice the role of hats in photography—particularly men's hats, which of course are not so often found in photographs these days—and white picket fences, barber shops, empty chairs and blind accordion players. We learn how photographers learned from each other, copied each other and paid tribute to each other. Dyer is most interested in the images taken by a photographer that "look like photographs taken by someone else". Also, we learn a bit about what photographers such as Stieglitz, Lange, Evans and Arbus thought about each other, and I love gossip.
I felt cast adrift a little at the start—needing a framework on which to hang things, as Dyer intentionally jumps around from theme to theme, rather than following a more obvious (but duller) chronological structure. I might need to read it again, and also to draw up my diagram of date ranges, to better see who were contemporaries and who influenced who. It has kind of inspired me to embark on my own photographic exploration, in other words.
In the acknowledgments Dyer notes that his wife wishes there was a bit more of himself in the book, and I think I would have appreciated that too—it is still a very personal approach to photography but Dyer's own reactions, prevarications, doubts etc were part of what made "Out of Sheer Rage" so enjoyable. In any case I would like everything to be explained to me by Geoff Dyer and can only hope he is planning a book about sub-atomic particles next.
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