Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely Stunning
Review: Absolutely beautiful photographs, printed on oversized 15" x 11" paper. Though the captions are minimalistic I think that the photos need no real explanation. The book's colors and vividness make the photo's come alive. I also believe that Phaidon is the best art publishing house in the world. I highly reccomend it!
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Stunning
Review: Absolutely beautiful photographs, printed on oversized 15" x 11" paper. Though the captions are minimalistic I think that the photos need no real explanation. The book's colors and vividness make the photo's come alive. I also believe that Phaidon is the best art publishing house in the world. I highly reccomend it!
Rating: 
Summary: Expensive but beautiful book of pictures
Review: As a lover of photography books, and pictures of exotic locales, I bought this volume based on the glowing recommendations of the other reviewers from Amazon.com. The buyer should know most of the images were taken in India, and so if one is expecting a good mix of images from various places in southeast Asia, he is not going to find them in this book. Nevertheless there is a good balance of pictures of people (i.e., portraits), people going on with the business of their lives (working, playing, begging), and a few stunning city landscapes (I wish there were more of these).
The book is not cheap-there are not really that many pages (one image per page)- and although the quality of the paper and the pictures is good, it is not superb. I have owned better. Overall, for those readers who love looking at beautiful pictures, or those who can relate to pictures of people and places in Asia, this book is worthwhile buying.
Rating:
Summary: A true photographic work of art
Review: Had the opportunity recently to see many of the pictures from this book during a Steve McCurry exhibit at the George Eastman House in Rochester. If you are in the Rochester, NY area I highly reccommend this exhibit. Just amazing pictures. McCurry combines the immediacy of photojournalism with the artist's use of color and composition. Steve McCurry's work is a must for any lover of beautiful, thought-provoking photographic art.
Rating:
Summary: A true photographic work of art
Review: Had the opportunity recently to see many of the pictures from this book during a Steve McCurry exhibit at the George Eastman House in Rochester. If you are in the Rochester, NY area I highly reccommend this exhibit. Just amazing pictures. McCurry combines the immediacy of photojournalism with the artist's use of color and composition. Steve McCurry's work is a must for any lover of beautiful, thought-provoking photographic art.
Rating:
Summary: Oerwhelming photographs in every aspect.
Review: I came across this book on the display shelf along with several others. Its cover caught my eyes immediately. After briefly reviewing the content, I though I need to find a place to sit down and take a closer look. I usually view photo albums very quickly because the majority of them are not interesting and special enough to catch my attention. But not this one! The more I looked, the more I was touched. It's exactly what a photograph is all about-keeps the viewer's eyes on it. I then recalled seeing some of the photographs before. Yes, some appeared in "National Geographic" and, more amazingly, I then remembered seeing some of the pictures displayed in the International Center of Photography in New York City. That was my first visit to ICP at year 2000. I was already so impressed at that time with Steve's work. Now it's like bump into a good old friend. You don't need a background in art or photography to appreciate his work, although it might help. It somehow just makes the connection. Just noticed that there is a book signing by Steve at ICP for his "The Temples of Angkor" on May 10th, 2002 from 6:30 to 8:00 PM. Steve, we love to see more and thanks.
Rating:
Summary: Glorious!!!
Review: I picked up this book quite by accident in the art section-knowing nothing and caring little about photography. After riffling through it for a while, I suddenly realized that these unbelievably beautiful, gorgeously colored, perfectly composed images were photographs, not paintings as I had hoped. Add to that the emotional content of these exotic images, they hit me in the eye, mind and heart with the impact of blow to the solar plexus. It is at the top of my wish list and a must for every artist, photographer, or any one who has eyes!!!
Rating:
Summary: South Southeast
Review: I thought McCurry's last book, Portraits, was "the best" but I was wrong -- South Southeast is even better. In my opinion, this is the finest book of photography ever published. The brief narrative serves to add perspective to a brilliant piece of work. This book will be essential to any photography lover's library.
Rating:
Summary: Minimalist captions serve a purpose.
Review: In this case I believe that McCurry has decided over the years to focus people forcibly on his pictures. If you are curious as to why Jodhpur has a 'blue' section, you can find that out, but if you don't understand the significance of the birds in Mazar-e-sharif, or the tension in the pictures from Kashmir, you really ought to look for a more in-depth source than McCurry's captions could possibly provide. Even if they were several pages long, they still would not do the subject justice.The astounding quality of the separations (I think Phaidon may be the best color art-photo house in the world) and the tightly edited collection of McCurry's absolute best work should be enough to hold most readers' attention, in my humble opinion. I have purchased (and given to friends) previous books by McCurry where his photographs were embedded in his prose (Monsoon) or a professional writer's (Paul Theroux, in The Imperial Way). Comparing them to South Southeast, there is no question that McCurry's ever-expanding portfolio compelled him to go for the pure artistic play here. I submit that it works marvelously. If you are interested in history or politics, there are better sources than Steve McCurry. If you are interested in color photojournalism from Asia, there probably aren't.
Rating:
Summary: Minimalist captions serve a purpose.
Review: In this case I believe that McCurry has decided over the years to focus people forcibly on his pictures. If you are curious as to why Jodhpur has a 'blue' section, you can find that out, but if you don't understand the significance of the birds in Mazar-e-sharif, or the tension in the pictures from Kashmir, you really ought to look for a more in-depth source than McCurry's captions could possibly provide. Even if they were several pages long, they still would not do the subject justice. The astounding quality of the separations (I think Phaidon may be the best color art-photo house in the world) and the tightly edited collection of McCurry's absolute best work should be enough to hold most readers' attention, in my humble opinion. I have purchased (and given to friends) previous books by McCurry where his photographs were embedded in his prose (Monsoon) or a professional writer's (Paul Theroux, in The Imperial Way). Comparing them to South Southeast, there is no question that McCurry's ever-expanding portfolio compelled him to go for the pure artistic play here. I submit that it works marvelously. If you are interested in history or politics, there are better sources than Steve McCurry. If you are interested in color photojournalism from Asia, there probably aren't.
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