Michael Snow: Cover to Cover

[Christopher Colley]

Greetings!

I visited the library today to pickup my normal selection of 4 different photography books. I chose, mostly at random, 4 books... including Cover to Cover by Michael Snow

WOW!

I really had no idea what to expect in this one, the name was familiar but I couldnt recall any specific work..

I have never seen a photography book (or anything) quite like this. I have seen some work that is somewhat similar in terms of progession of a story by Duane Michals and others... but..... not anything like this..

I got about 10 pages into the book and started to smile, I kept thinking to myself "what the heck is going on here?! this is crazy" by page 40 I was laughing. Insane! I could barely contain myself..

At some point in the book I felt like I lost control of 'reading' it (inasmuch as someone 'reads' a book of photos). Michael takes control of the process! He turns the pages for you! at one point the viewer is no longer reading the book..

Amazing photos, amazing concept and the 'end' is really an amazing thing that makes the whole book into something otherworldly.. a strange object..

Ive only had one quick look through it, now that I know the 'ending' I am eager to look through it again... amazing!

 

[Christopher Colley]

The book is all about perspective.. For much of it you are seeing on one side of the book a photograph made from one camera and the other side is by another camera

in the middle of these two views is the same subject, for example..

**spoiler alert** ....dont read this if you really plan to look at this book and would like a fresh view on it..

the first 2 pages shows on the left hand side a man standing directly in front of a door (the man appears to be Mr. Snow), we are looking at his back, the back of his head.. on the other side of the open book, the right hand side, there is a photograph just of a door..

as the pages continue you see the door open from both sides, with the subject walking through the doorway..

the interesting thing is that once the subject walks through the doorway you see (from the perspective of the formally closed door blank door) a photographer behind the walking subject with a camera and tripod (the photographer who is portrayed as photographing the mans back as he walked away through the door)

as the man walks out of the scene we see both photographers, on one page the photographer who at first photographed the mans back as he waited to open the door then the other side of the page is the photographer who made a photo of the door waiting to be opened... very cool..

this continues.. in a very strange way throughout opening pages.. at one point hands appear and you realize you are looking at prints, the hands are holding prints (the photos we just saw) being held up in front of the cameras that the two photographers are using.... so in a certain way the book is telling you that you are no longer looking at a book but a series of prints, the fingers flip through the prints and then you see one of the prints of a photographer looking at the doorway being put into a typewriter in which the title of the book, publisher info ISBN etc. is being typed on the back, again, we see this from both perspectives.... seeing the text go down on the white side, the rear of the print and seeing the back of the typewriter which reveals the front of the print we just saw earlier..... as this happens you can see a TLR camera peeking out just above the paper from the view of the person typing.....

the camera zooms into the white and it fades to white and goes to another scene, a man putting a record on a turntable, you see this from both perspectives, as the man, and as the record player, in sequence, very cool..

at one point the fingers and hands come in again and they actually turn the pages (in a perspective as youd see reading a book, they pick up some pages and turn to another page, this happens over several pages) when the hands go away you are at another sequence.. this time a man going somewhere in a car (again, seen from two camera angles, one each page)

during this sequence of the man going somewhere the hands come back and rotate the images we are looking at upside down!! really, so the rest of the book, (maybe 40? pages) is upside down, so you kind of have to turn the book upside down and read it backwards to see the pictures the 'right way'

when the man arrives at the destination it appears to be an art gallery... he walks up to a book and picks it up, it is the book you are reading, he shows it to one of the photographers (again, we can see both cameras on tripods) the book is upside down... you turn to the last page (no blank pages in this book, even the back inside cover has a photo) and it shows the door again, closing the book, you see his fingers holding the book up to you....


*ruins the ending for everyone*

I hope you can make sense of this, its kinda hard to explain.. really cool object.. lotsa stuff to think about! all about perspective, at first you think its camera perspective then you realize its about the artists perspective then you realize its about your perspective as a viewer....

search your local libraries and used book stores! this one is a keeper

(published 1975 new york university press, ISBN 0-8147-7769-4)