Paris : 550 photos by Maurice Suberive

Rating:
Summary: Utterly magnificent photos with flawed paper covers
Review: On the inside, this is simply the most beautiful collection of photographs of a major city that I have ever seen. One would think that Paris would not be a major candidate for a new collection of photographs, but as familiar as it is, Subervie manages to make it look completely fresh and new, much in the same way that AMELIE made Paris look like an unfamiliar and eerily beautiful place. If you take this book and look through the photographs with a map in hand, you can actually take a remote visual tour of Paris. I love the way the book is organized, with the various sections of Paris grouped together. I own several books of photographs of Paris, and this one easily laps the field. The only problem I have with the contents of the book is the absence of an index. The book contains a wealth of photographs, and just about every important structure in Paris is covered, but finding one in particular would have been greatly facilitated by an index.

I dock the book a star because of the experience I have had with the book's exterior. It is a paperback, with nice, heavy-stock paper covers. But they have placed a plastic film around the book's exterior, and for reasons I won't go into, I have found that most of the copies of the volume have problems with the plastic film peeling off. This does not, of course, effect the contents of the book, but it is a shame that such an extraordinary book should suffer from poor jacket design. As it stands now, you have this marvelous collection of photographs, with sizable portions of the covering peeling off. I hope that the book sells out of its first printing and that the publisher will tweak the design to correct this problem.

Apart from that caveat, this is one of the most satisfying collections of photographs of a city that one is ever likely to find.

Rating:
Summary: Utterly magnificent photos with flawed paper covers
Review: On the inside, this is simply the most beautiful collection of photographs of a major city that I have ever seen. One would think that Paris would not be a major candidate for a new collection of photographs, but as familiar as it is, Subervie manages to make it look completely fresh and new, much in the same way that AMELIE made Paris look like an unfamiliar and eerily beautiful place. If you take this book and look through the photographs with a map in hand, you can actually take a remote visual tour of Paris. I love the way the book is organized, with the various sections of Paris grouped together. I own several books of photographs of Paris, and this one easily laps the field. The only problem I have with the contents of the book is the absence of an index. The book contains a wealth of photographs, and just about every important structure in Paris is covered, but finding one in particular would have been greatly facilitated by an index.

I dock the book a star because of the experience I have had with the book's exterior. It is a paperback, with nice, heavy-stock paper covers. But they have placed a plastic film around the book's exterior, and for reasons I won't go into, I have found that most of the copies of the volume have problems with the plastic film peeling off. This does not, of course, effect the contents of the book, but it is a shame that such an extraordinary book should suffer from poor jacket design. As it stands now, you have this marvelous collection of photographs, with sizable portions of the covering peeling off. I hope that the book sells out of its first printing and that the publisher will tweak the design to correct this problem.

Apart from that caveat, this is one of the most satisfying collections of photographs of a city that one is ever likely to find.

Rating:
Summary: Drinking in Paris in 500 Photos
Review: This book has few words and no space wasted in lavish layout. Just a hefty little paperback (about the size of the Insight travel series but twice as thick) with page after page of terrific Paris scenes. Many of the photographs are full-paged, some are double-paged. Brief captions are included and often indicate the camera location when appropriate (e.g., shots from atop Samaritaine or Montparnasse Tower).

The photography is artful without being self-consciously arty. It shows ~Paris~, not precious images that might have been cleverly shot anywhere. Most of the shots are exterior. The famous landmarks are well covered, and from views quite a bit fresher than your average postcard. Other photos show the city in spots not quite so well known. They are all wonderful.

I am obsessed with Paris and buy everything I can find in the way of physically depicting the city -- every kind of photo book, aerial photography, satellite imagery, maps, architectural guides, travel books, etc. I have some grand [and costly] coffee table books. But I have nothing that I enjoy more than this little paperback.

Rating:
Summary: If You Love Paris, You'll Love This Book!
Review: This is a gift to and for anyone who loves Paris. The quality, quantity, sharpness, camera angles and color reproductions of the photographs are first-rate. Here is a visual feast of both tourists' Paris and insiders' Paris, the famous buildings and the little nooks and crannies that make Paris the most beautiful city on earth. Note: The photo on the cover of the book is different than the one displayed on amazon.com.

Rating:
Summary: If You Love Paris, You'll Love This Book!
Review: This is a gift to and for anyone who loves Paris. The quality, quantity, sharpness, camera angles and color reproductions of the photographs are first-rate. Here is a visual feast of both tourists' Paris and insiders' Paris, the famous buildings and the little nooks and crannies that make Paris the most beautiful city on earth. Note: The photo on the cover of the book is different than the one displayed on amazon.com.