USA

Rating:
Summary: A pretty look at the USA.
Review: This is one of those generalised photo books that pop up every so often, another title could be 'America: A Book To Remember Her By'. Priced very reasonable and with 900 well printed color photos it captures the feel of the country but in a very tourist postcard way.

Divided into three sections, Landscape and Lifestyle both have six chapters, Architecture has three. I thought the Landscape had the best material, Lifestyle with its photos of people doing things are really not much better than snapshots that anyone could have taken and many of them are badly cropped. Architecture with its chapters on Public buildings, Traditional homes and Contemporary homes seems rather out of place especially the fifty-six pages devoted to contemporary interiors, technically good photos but they look like they should be in an interior design magazine. Many of the photos have captions but they are just bland comments with few facts. Strangely there is no information about the person who did all the work, photographer Jordi Miralles,. another indication that these hundreds of images are really no more than pleasant tourist reminders of an amazing country.

I expect 'USA' will sell well at airports, just the thing for departing visitors to pick up. If you want a reminder of your visit a more thoughtful and less overwhelming (least in photo numbers) book is 'America America' by photographers Sonja and Angelo Lomeo. These two know their stuff, good compositions, color and subject matter and beautifully printed too.

Rating:
Summary: A pretty look at the USA.
Review: This is one of those generalised photo books that pop up every so often, another title could be `America: A Book To Remember Her By'. Priced very reasonable and with 900 well printed color photos it captures the feel of the country but in a very tourist postcard way.

Divided into three sections, Landscape and Lifestyle both have six chapters, Architecture has three. I thought the Landscape had the best material, Lifestyle with its photos of people doing things are really not much better than snapshots that anyone could have taken and many of them are badly cropped. Architecture with its chapters on Public buildings, Traditional homes and Contemporary homes seems rather out of place especially the fifty-six pages devoted to contemporary interiors, technically good photos but they look like they should be in an interior design magazine. Many of the photos have captions but they are just bland comments with few facts. Strangely there is no information about the person who did all the work, photographer Jordi Miralles,. another indication that these hundreds of images are really no more than pleasant tourist reminders of an amazing country.

I expect `USA' will sell well at airports, just the thing for departing visitors to pick up. If you want a reminder of your visit a more thoughtful and less overwhelming (least in photo numbers) book is `America America' by photographers Sonja and Angelo Lomeo. These two know their stuff, good compositions, color and subject matter and beautifully printed too.