Richard Billingham: Ray's a Laugh

Rating:
Summary: Nearly snatches defeat from the jaws of victory.
Review: I am an avid fan of Billingham and 'Ray's a laugh' really is remarkable. Powerful with a gift for storytelling that reminds me of Nick Waplington (see Living Room & The Wedding), but Billingham here is much more intimate. The courage to put your family on public view, is breathtaking.

So Why do Scala try to mess it all up, with really poor layouts. Some really strong images lose their stock as they disappear into the book gutters, and the compositions of many of the pages and their counter pages are just plain wrong.

A brilliant book marred by bad design. We are indeed fortunate that the images really are strong enough to breakthrough.

Rating:
Summary: Smacks you upside down about 20 min after you've walked away
Review: When I first looked at this book, I wrote it off as odd, but stupid...snapshots some guy took of his family. So what? We all have photos like this. But this book contains some of the most disturbing photos I have seen in a while, and I've seen a lot that are considered to be disturbing... they are also brillant.

Billingham's photos completely avoid the current trends in contemporary photography (large format, brilliant prints) to offer an honest look at life today. And that life is odd. His prints appear to follow in the tradition of Eggleston's and Friedlander's in that they are of "nothing important", while adding that taste of the raw, the real, which is found in (Larry) Clark's photos. I would probably say his work is closest to Nan Goldin's, but undercut with a calm bitterness or a bitter calm.

This book makes you think a lot about what "art photography" is. It does not use fancy technology or obviously subject matter to push the boundaries of the medium. Definitely a book for the connisseur who wants to reflect on the nature of photography today.

Rating:
Summary: Smacks you upside down about 20 min after you've walked away
Review: When I first looked at this book, I wrote it off as odd, but stupid...snapshots some guy took of his family. So what? We all have photos like this. But this book contains some of the most disturbing photos I have seen in a while, and I've seen a lot that are considered to be disturbing... they are also brillant.

Billingham's photos completely avoid the current trends in contemporary photography (large format, brilliant prints) to offer an honest look at life today. And that life is odd. His prints appear to follow in the tradition of Eggleston's and Friedlander's in that they are of "nothing important", while adding that taste of the raw, the real, which is found in (Larry) Clark's photos. I would probably say his work is closest to Nan Goldin's, but undercut with a calm bitterness or a bitter calm.

This book makes you think a lot about what "art photography" is. It does not use fancy technology or obviously subject matter to push the boundaries of the medium. Definitely a book for the connisseur who wants to reflect on the nature of photography today.