Michel Hardy-Vallée
Membership Council
Perhaps it's a question of personal timing, but I haven't seen such a smart and well-done photo book in a while.
Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris. Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry. by Leanne Shapton is a fictional auction catalogue of the personal belongings of a NYC couple having recently split, after moving together for less than a year.
Through the accumulation of minutia, letters left in paperbooks, trinkets exchanged at birthdays, folded post-it, clothes, and other pieces of life's scrap, Shapton builds a very tight and complete portrait of the two character's life, their relationship to each other, their disputes, their fondness for each other, and their surrounding social scene. She's a young New York Times food columnist (writing on cake!); he's a slightly older commercial photographer.
Obviously, the fact that the man is a photographer allows for a lot of fun in-jokes and pithy statements on photography around the turn of the 2000's. For instance, he offers her Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Stills for her birthday, mentioning that Sherman reminds him of her. Later on, he also gives her a Hassy 500 C/M. A few pages later, a scribbled note explains the gift "...had to rush back home to get my hard drive."
His list of unfinished/unpublished project is also telling and hilarious: a series of hotel roofs; a series of his feet in the bath; etc. There's a certain healthy cruelty to these unfinished business: it is the bane of so many photographers to produce intellectually underchallenging project because they think doing a series of anything is the sign of Art.
The only bemol I would put to the bookbecause it's so engrossing and richis that I wish the subjects were other than New York hipsters. Up to a point, I appreciate the critique pointing out that cultural workers are incredibly shallow (even though they may believe in their intellectual depth), but at the same time, it targets only this audience, able to understand the references.
Shallow characters also lessen the pathos of the breakup: in a mockery of the drama of the final pages, the book begins with a casual note from the man saying he's single once more (broke up with his nth girlfriend), and is interested in seeing the woman again.
At any rate, Shapton proves to be a strong narrative writer, and her attention to details is superlative, creating an incredibly powerful picture of two people who should have never been together in the first place.
Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris. Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry. by Leanne Shapton is a fictional auction catalogue of the personal belongings of a NYC couple having recently split, after moving together for less than a year.
Through the accumulation of minutia, letters left in paperbooks, trinkets exchanged at birthdays, folded post-it, clothes, and other pieces of life's scrap, Shapton builds a very tight and complete portrait of the two character's life, their relationship to each other, their disputes, their fondness for each other, and their surrounding social scene. She's a young New York Times food columnist (writing on cake!); he's a slightly older commercial photographer.
Obviously, the fact that the man is a photographer allows for a lot of fun in-jokes and pithy statements on photography around the turn of the 2000's. For instance, he offers her Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Stills for her birthday, mentioning that Sherman reminds him of her. Later on, he also gives her a Hassy 500 C/M. A few pages later, a scribbled note explains the gift "...had to rush back home to get my hard drive."
His list of unfinished/unpublished project is also telling and hilarious: a series of hotel roofs; a series of his feet in the bath; etc. There's a certain healthy cruelty to these unfinished business: it is the bane of so many photographers to produce intellectually underchallenging project because they think doing a series of anything is the sign of Art.
The only bemol I would put to the bookbecause it's so engrossing and richis that I wish the subjects were other than New York hipsters. Up to a point, I appreciate the critique pointing out that cultural workers are incredibly shallow (even though they may believe in their intellectual depth), but at the same time, it targets only this audience, able to understand the references.
Shallow characters also lessen the pathos of the breakup: in a mockery of the drama of the final pages, the book begins with a casual note from the man saying he's single once more (broke up with his nth girlfriend), and is interested in seeing the woman again.
At any rate, Shapton proves to be a strong narrative writer, and her attention to details is superlative, creating an incredibly powerful picture of two people who should have never been together in the first place.
