Rating: 
Summary: Perfect gift for those "who already have everything"
Review: "Oh my Gosh, Mommy, here's a postcard of that toll booth we just went through on the Interstate. Let's send it to Aunt Milli to show her we've come this far!" I can imagine myself saying more or less that, sometime in the mid-1960's, as we're cruising in our Rambler station wagon on the way to summer camp. This collection is great. I ran across it in a bookstore, giggled as I paged through it, and immediately bought one as a housewarming gift for the couple who has everything. But when I got home, I found myself opening the package up to giggle some more. I felt kind of sad actually giving it away - the same feeling as sending off a postcard. It goes into the mailbox and it's gone, but not forgotten (at least for a moment). The collection is not only funny, it says a lot about America. I guess I need to get my own copy of the book...
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Collection of the Mundane
Review: Boring Postcards is a conundrum. Then name perfectly describes the contents of the book yet they become fascinating, baffling, and sometimes hilarious. What goes through one's mind is why would anyone take a photo of this then try to sell it or use it to attract tourists. Why would anyone make a postcard of an interstate, a bend in the road, a truck stop, an aerial view of a hotel, a hospital room? Individually, no one would pay attention to them. But put together they become mesmerizing. It has the same effect as looking through a bunch of photos that have no meaning to you. You know no one, the photography is bad, you don't know why the photographer chose to take a picture of what they did yet they remain interesting. And Boring Postcards, perhaps because they were ostensibly done by professional photographers, remains intriguing.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Collection of the Mundane
Review: Boring Postcards is a conundrum. Then name perfectly describes the contents of the book yet they become fascinating, baffling, and sometimes hilarious. What goes through one's mind is why would anyone take a photo of this then try to sell it or use it to attract tourists. Why would anyone make a postcard of an interstate, a bend in the road, a truck stop, an aerial view of a hotel, a hospital room? Individually, no one would pay attention to them. But put together they become mesmerizing. It has the same effect as looking through a bunch of photos that have no meaning to you. You know no one, the photography is bad, you don't know why the photographer chose to take a picture of what they did yet they remain interesting. And Boring Postcards, perhaps because they were ostensibly done by professional photographers, remains intriguing.
Rating:
Summary: a really rather special little book
Review: Boring Postcards, collected and edited by Magnum photographer Martin Parr, composed 160 of the dullest British postcards from the fifties, sixties and seventies, touched a national nerve at the same time as it confirmed many foreigners' preconceptions of the British. As the Sunday Times critic discussed at the time: individually they were a kitsch hoot, but collectively they referred to the spirit and soul of a Britain vanished for ever.For this collection Martin Parr has turned his eye to the USA. The format remains exactly the same: the only text included being the names of the various different postcard publishers whose products are included. The images, again 160 of them, are left to speak for themselves and strict criteria have been applied to the definition of "boring". Either its composition, content, or the characters featured must be arguably boring or it must be devoid of any subject matter which might conventionally be described as interesting. Rather than comparing Boring Postcards USA to its only slightly older English cousin however, it is perhaps more appropriate to regard it within the established photographic genre which attempts to define and deal with notions of Americanness. To name but a few this long established genre includes the work of: Alexander Gardner, Lewis Hine, Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Walker Evans, Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Robert Frank and, perhaps more relevant to Parr's oeuvre, Bill Owens. Looked at in this light, as Martin Parr is certainly aware, Boring Postcards USA has some way to climb; but for all that there is an appropriateness in using images made for mass consumption as a window on the ultimate consumer society. Certainly the humour shines through: taconite for anyone curious turns out to be a type of hard rock used as iron ore and the book, perhaps in spite of itself, seems bigger than itself. "Moving on", "My Four Wheels" and the notion of "Mom and Apple Pie" all feature. On a personal note I lament the exclusion of the famous Airstream caravan but echoes of previous work do indeed sneak through. Could for example the large veneered television on which Ronald Regan appears in Bill Owens' Suburbia have in fact been a Spartan Way Imperial? Did Matthew Brady make pictures near to what would later become the Gettysburg Interchange? And most crucial of all is the American sense of humour, sometimes self conscious and reportedly devoid of irony, ready for the attentions of Martin Parr? Let's hope so, for like last year's this is a really rather special little book. I await with bated breath the advent of Boring Postcards Belgium.
Rating:
Summary: Makes you want to start a collection of your own !
Review: Having grown up in Britain during the 60's and 70's this book especially tugged at my heart and sense of ubsurdity. I had even been to some of these places during the period these pictures were taken! My very favorites are the postcards of holiday caravan sites near the coast where the sender draws an X on the trailer they are staying in. This genius book is a perfect gift for that special person who is difficult to buy for, or who has everything allready. A great coffee table book and conversation starter.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring Postcards
Review: In a "nut shell", I felt that this was not "money well spent".I enjoyed looking at the postcards, but was disappointed at how many were offered (only one per 6"x8" page, total, about 175). I would have liked it a lot more if someone else had paid for it. Maybe I can sell it at a yard sale for a buck.
Rating:
Summary: Boring Postcards
Review: In a "nut shell", I felt that this was not "money well spent".I enjoyed looking at the postcards, but was disappointed at how many were offered (only one per 6"x8" page, total, about 175). I would have liked it a lot more if someone else had paid for it. Maybe I can sell it at a yard sale for a buck.
Rating:
Summary: A trip back through my childhood...
Review: Looking at the postcards in this book is like travelling back to the 1960's. A time when the highways were not packed with traffic, and stopping for lunch meant pulling into the local, non-franchised restaurant. Yes, the motel interiors really did look like that, and my brothers and I were thrilled to sleep in a room with air conditioning and color TV. We find this book fascinating, and so have the friends who have looked through it with us.
Rating:
Summary: A trip back through my childhood...
Review: Looking at the postcards in this book is like travelling back to the 1960's. A time when the highways were not packed with traffic, and stopping for lunch meant pulling into the local, non-franchised restaurant. Yes, the motel interiors really did look like that, and my brothers and I were thrilled to sleep in a room with air conditioning and color TV. We find this book fascinating, and so have the friends who have looked through it with us.
Rating:
Summary: just bought some
Review: Saw this book in L.A. and had to buy it. Then went away for a vacation and was motivated to buy the "boring" postcards at a thrift store. Thank you boring postcards! My friends will now be like "What the hell?"
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