The Journey Is the Destination: The Journals of Dan Eldon

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Summary: Dan Eldon's journal is an amazing adventure.
Review: I had the chance to see Dan Eldon's mother speak at UCLA last year and that just made the book seem all the more real. Amy was there too, and she was as beautiful in person as she was in Dan's photos. I have read several reviews which have criticized The journey is the destination, but what we all need to remember is that this book chronichles someone's life. It's art, not fiction. Either you closed the booking recieving some kind of knowledge or inspiration,or you just saw some neat pictures. Saying that Dan copied Peter Beard's work is stupid as well as ridiculous. Many photographers, and artists keep journals like Dan's. I am a photographer and before I saw Dan or Peter Beard's journals I was making collages out to my photographs. There are numerous photo journals like Dan's and Peter's, what makes them all different and special is that they were constructed by unique individuals.

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Summary: Book Review
Review: The Journey is the Destination: the Journals of Dan Eldon is a fabulous work. After my art teacher showed me this book, I went out and got it for myself. It shows the life and thoughts of a person who did great things during his short time on earth. The art is amazing, humerous, and thought provoking. It interested me and also made me want to do something to help those who need my help in other places such as Africa. The journals of Dan Eldon made me want to explore, help, create, and live my life to its fullest. If you would like a look at a very talented person who helped others while living a very interesting and entertaining life, this is a great book.

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Summary: Awesome read, beautiful art
Review: Eldon's story of the war-torn Somolia is as much an artwork as it is an engaging story. This "book" is a reproduction of photojournalist Dan Eldon's journal from his travels in the most impoverished regions of Africa. Part insightful reading, part artistic work, this book should be on anyone's reading list who wants to know more about the world we don't see everyday, and it truly makes one think about all we have, and all Eldon lost...5 out of 5 starts easily!

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Summary: "The journey" is an inspiration
Review: I initially bought this book for my girlfriend. She is a graphic designer and she was lyrical about it. Now I am the one who reads it the most. The nice thing about "The Journals of Dan Eldon" is that every time you pick it up, it says something different, you see new things. That's because he was such an allround and grown-up artist already. It is a book that makes you want to live your life as intense and open and adventurous as possible. It is very sad he died at such a young age and it is a great loss to the world of art, but with these journals, his death has been given a meaning.

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Summary: Truly a heartbreaking and humbling experience.
Review: This book is not just the random publication of a few arbitrary journal pages. This book is the culmination of a young man's short life and a minor insight into the wonderful and brilliant experiences he was documenting for himself. These personal memories and artworks are an honor for those of us who did not know him to be able to share, and remark at the tragic and unnecessary loss of Dan Eldon and those who died with him. Imagine what Dan Eldon could have continued to produce as an artist, as a photographer...as the talented and devoted individual changing the world. It is always in death that life becomes so valued; whether or not you liked this book, at least take away from it the reasons and purposes that Dan Eldon believed in, the people he knew and the lives he helped change. He has contributed more to the world than any of us ever will.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome read, beautiful art
Review: Eldon's story of the war-torn Somolia is as much an artwork as it is an engaging story. This "book" is a reproduction of photojournalist Dan Eldon's journal from his travels in the most impoverished regions of Africa. Part insightful reading, part artistic work, this book should be on anyone's reading list who wants to know more about the world we don't see everyday, and it truly makes one think about all we have, and all Eldon lost...5 out of 5 starts easily!

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Summary: giving inspiration
Review: After seeing this book in a Borders store, I decided to buy it. I couldn't put it down, page after page offers so much of the author, yet offered so much to the reader. It makes your own imagination soar again, and as a fellow photographer, it gave me a kick in the butt I needed to start shooting again. The vision of Dan Eldon was not only through a lens, but through his heart as well. He accomplished a great deal in a short life, and definitely contributed to the bettering of our world. His photographs of Africa, combined with the scrapbook like additions of text and objects could be considered a new form of documentary photography. I strongly urge anyone who is interested in travel or photojournalism to get this book and have it transform your outlook on life.

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Summary: a visual diary
Review: knowing how dan was killed in somalia and that he left such a visual journal was enough to want to look at this book. it a a tremendous body of work saved by the photographer. you fell his youthfulness in the scrapbook materials he saved--a lot with his girlfriend--as we all did when we were young

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely life-altering
Review: This is the most beautiful book I have ever read, and it hardly contains any words that weren't torn from a magazine or cut from a food container. I absolutely recommend it for anyone who is touched by lives led for adventure, for journalists and photojournalists alike, for diary-keepers and journalers, for artists and photographers and collagists and secret writers of poetry... Anyone who has a speck of compassion in them and an eye for color and beauty will treasure this. What a life lived!

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Summary: Gorgeous Book
Review: I found this book in the special collection section of the library at VCU, and was very intrigued. It is a wonderful reproduction of a most interesting journal. Even if you don't take into account Dan Eldon's sad ending, this book can be an inspiration for beginning your own journal. His journal is artistic, vague, wild, and engrossing.