Truth or Consequences

Rating:
Summary: Not much truth here unfortunately.
Review: The small town of Truth or Consequences, just down the road aways from Albuquerque on I25 in New Mexico, first attracted the attention of British photographer Nick Waplington in 1993. This collection of one hundred and thirty-five color photos are the result of several visits to the town and surrounding area over the years. When I first got the book I had a quick flick through the pages and I was impressed with the color quality and the subject matter.

However, I have now looked through the photos several times and I find the whole selection disappointing, I don't think there are more than fourteen that are worth looking at again and again. The sort of photos that have a strong composition (essential) depth, good color, and subject matter that draws the viewer into the photo. Far too many of the rest are no better than snaps, taken quickly and then onto the next exposure. Annoyingly eighteen are devoted to some kind of parade in the town and there are at least two that any professional photographer would probably reject at first viewing when they came back from the lab.

The back of the book has nineteen photos Nick Waplington took on a journey to Las Vegas in November 2000. Nothing special here except for a stunning shot of a cowboy statue surrounded by buildings, street furniture and signs (ONE WAY, PARKING, ENTRANCE etc). This one shot has the feel of the great FSA photos of the thirties and it is a pity that the majority of the rest in the book did not show the same quality as this one and really show what Truth or Consequences was like.

The book starts with a twelve page introduction by writer John Slyce about the town and the photos and it occurred to me after reading it that the writing is as uninteresting as most of the images, for example... "It is through triangulated acts of some ironic quotation that `Truth or Consequences' gains critical force", or "Art today, even in its most original state, is a looped cycle of sampled and reconfigured regurgitation with little or nothing new save the prices to be established at auction"... Hmmm.

One final point concerns the books production, for some bizarre reason there are no captions (or page numbers either) to any of the photos. Surely a mistake when many of them show events, people and places that any reader would naturally ask ... "What's going on here?". Unfortunately we'll never know!

Rating:
Summary: Not much truth here unfortunately.
Review: The small town of Truth or Consequences, just down the road aways from Albuquerque on I25 in New Mexico, first attracted the attention of British photographer Nick Waplington in 1993. This collection of one hundred and thirty-five color photos are the result of several visits to the town and surrounding area over the years. When I first got the book I had a quick flick through the pages and I was impressed with the color quality and the subject matter.

However, I have now looked through the photos several times and I find the whole selection disappointing, I don't think there are more than fourteen that are worth looking at again and again. The sort of photos that have a strong composition (essential) depth, good color, and subject matter that draws the viewer into the photo. Far too many of the rest are no better than snaps, taken quickly and then onto the next exposure. Annoyingly eighteen are devoted to some kind of parade in the town and there are at least two that any professional photographer would probably reject at first viewing when they came back from the lab.

The back of the book has nineteen photos Nick Waplington took on a journey to Las Vegas in November 2000. Nothing special here except for a stunning shot of a cowboy statue surrounded by buildings, street furniture and signs (ONE WAY, PARKING, ENTRANCE etc). This one shot has the feel of the great FSA photos of the thirties and it is a pity that the majority of the rest in the book did not show the same quality as this one and really show what Truth or Consequences was like.

The book starts with a twelve page introduction by writer John Slyce about the town and the photos and it occurred to me after reading it that the writing is as uninteresting as most of the images, for example... "It is through triangulated acts of some ironic quotation that 'Truth or Consequences' gains critical force", or "Art today, even in its most original state, is a looped cycle of sampled and reconfigured regurgitation with little or nothing new save the prices to be established at auction"... Hmmm.

One final point concerns the books production, for some bizarre reason there are no captions (or page numbers either) to any of the photos. Surely a mistake when many of them show events, people and places that any reader would naturally ask ... "What's going on here?". Unfortunately we'll never know!