Studio St. Petersburg

Rating:
Summary: A book that gives you an experience of St. Petersburg
Review: Not everyone will like this book of Deborah Tuberville photographs set off by poems from Russia's finest poets. This book of non-specific, mostly black-and-white photos creates a mood, and the essence of St. Petersburg. It is astonishing, and even if you don't like it at first, a second look will bring you back again and again to study how did this book give you an experience of, rather than an image of a place, a time, a feeling you've been there before. There are many many books of photos of St. Petersburg. This isn't like any one of them. It is not difficult to photograph a city the way everyone else does it. This book takes photography into the realm of poetry and projects so much more than an image. Deborah Tuberville has a magic that will attract anyone tired of seeing the same photographs taken year after year by other photographers. This is not Ansel Adams. This is where I hope photography will be as technology makes everyone a good photographer and we all want more from our images. It's the best buy on the Internet.

Rating:
Summary: A book that gives you an experience of St. Petersburg
Review: Not everyone will like this book of Deborah Tuberville photographs set off by poems from Russia's finest poets. This book of non-specific, mostly black-and-white photos creates a mood, and the essence of St. Petersburg. It is astonishing, and even if you don't like it at first, a second look will bring you back again and again to study how did this book give you an experience of, rather than an image of a place, a time, a feeling you've been there before. There are many many books of photos of St. Petersburg. This isn't like any one of them. It is not difficult to photograph a city the way everyone else does it. This book takes photography into the realm of poetry and projects so much more than an image. Deborah Tuberville has a magic that will attract anyone tired of seeing the same photographs taken year after year by other photographers. This is not Ansel Adams. This is where I hope photography will be as technology makes everyone a good photographer and we all want more from our images. It's the best buy on the Internet.

Rating:
Summary: Studio St. Petersberg by Deborah Turbeville
Review: One of the best photography books I've collected yet. This is not your typical subject matter and was refreshing to my eye. I enjoyed the literary quotes as well. I look forward to seeing what other work she has done.

Rating:
Summary: Studio St. Petersberg by Deborah Turbeville
Review: One of the best photography books I've collected yet. This is not your typical subject matter and was refreshing to my eye. I enjoyed the literary quotes as well. I look forward to seeing what other work she has done.

Rating:
Summary: my favorite
Review: This book is what the world of photography needs. I go to [local bookstore] and all I see is models, landscape, and the usual [stuff] that everyone thinks photography should be. Deborah is trying to put these words into the pictures. The text is from russian poets/philosophers with a sort of bleak view of the world. If you want to read don't get a photography book. I think she did what she wanted as far as the pictures go. The faces show life the buildings show age. She made the book look the age of the world the poets were writing about. This book couldn't be any more perfect and if you can't appreciate that then please sell your copy to someone who can.

Rating:
Summary: A little too bleak
Review: This is a photography book about St. Petersburg, Russia. There is almost no text. What text there is, is all in CAPITAL LETTERS WHICH MAKES IT THAT MUCH HARDER TO READ. The font color of the text is also close to the color of the pages which makes it still harder to read. Of course, since this is a photography book, the author may not really want the reader to read the text anyway. The photos with a very few exceptions are all black and white. Many of them are grainy, blurred or scratched, apparently to give them an artsy look. The book is a nice contrast to the many coffee table style books about St. Petersburg that only show the beautiful museums and palaces, but on the other hand, it paints a much gloomier picture of St. Petersburg than is justified. Having been to St. Petersburg twice in the past four years, the truth is somewhere in between Turbeville's bleak portrait and the many too rosy portraits painted by so many other books on St. Petersburg. Still, the book does have some examples of very good photography although many of the photos of people are just a little too posed even for a book with the word "studio" in its title. Just remember though, in spite of all the difficulties in St. Petersburg today, sometimes, at least some of the people of St. Petersburg smile. You would never know that, if you only had Turbeville's book.

Rating:
Summary: A little too bleak
Review: This is a photography book about St. Petersburg, Russia. There is almost no text. What text there is, is all in CAPITAL LETTERS WHICH MAKES IT THAT MUCH HARDER TO READ. The font color of the text is also close to the color of the pages which makes it still harder to read. Of course, since this is a photography book, the author may not really want the reader to read the text anyway. The photos with a very few exceptions are all black and white. Many of them are grainy, blurred or scratched, apparently to give them an artsy look. The book is a nice contrast to the many coffee table style books about St. Petersburg that only show the beautiful museums and palaces, but on the other hand, it paints a much gloomier picture of St. Petersburg than is justified. Having been to St. Petersburg twice in the past four years, the truth is somewhere in between Turbeville's bleak portrait and the many too rosy portraits painted by so many other books on St. Petersburg. Still, the book does have some examples of very good photography although many of the photos of people are just a little too posed even for a book with the word "studio" in its title. Just remember though, in spite of all the difficulties in St. Petersburg today, sometimes, at least some of the people of St. Petersburg smile. You would never know that, if you only had Turbeville's book.