Two Times Intro : On the Road With Patti Smith

Rating:
Summary: Four stars because.....
Review: ...while there's lots of pictures, and commentaries by all sorts of rock/literature icons (Kim and Thurston of Sonic Youth, Burroughs, Ginsberg, and Stipe), I wish there were more pictures of actual performances. Pictures of Patti with her fans. But what can you complain about, really? Not much. I'm a photographer and a big Patti Smith fan, so this really makes me happy. I love the amatuer shots by Oliver, also. Makes me want to dig out my old Polaroid.

Rating:
Summary: um...yeah...
Review: A couple of things I've learned being an REM fan are that 1) things don't have to be logical to make sense and 2) that beauty is in the eye of ME, not the beholder sitting over there somewhere (of COURSE, everyone is their own "me" but that's just common sense). And I think this book is beautiful. If you love logic, or perfection for perfection's sake, don't bother, but if you want to look at something that's a bit different, see some images that it takes a mind like Michael Stipe's to think up, then I heartily reccomend it to you. The writings are fascinating as well. I almost felt like it gave me a bit of a peep hole into this group of people, to read some of their thoughts, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Rating:
Summary: Talk about such passion . . .
Review: As you can see I came to this book as one who appeciates Stipe's gift with words and wanted to see how his photography shaped up. I was not disappointed. Emotive, non-linear, these are words Michael Stipe is used to seeing in his reviews, and this one is no different just because it is visual rather than musical. Who needs focus? Any fool can point an automatic, take a snapshot. What is wonderful about this book is that Stipe's love of his subjects, the reverance and passion shows through. He has a natural eye for the beautiful and for the grotesque and the pictures are almost organic in composition. We are too linear in our thinking. Stipe makes us look in directions we forgot were there. He frames those things we take forgranted and fail to notice in what was, for him, everyday life. I didn't come looking for the clinical, artfully-lit style of Mapplethorpe. I wanted a piece of unadorned reality through someone else's lens, and that's what I got. Stipe and Ray (Smith's guitarist). The poetry's rather beautiful, also.

Rating:
Summary: A shakey hand does not an art book make.
Review: Growing up in the cold North East .I found a lot of the images strangely familiar in this book. As I perused the book I found it a sloppy ,poorly executed homage to an artist that deserves so much more. There are a handfull of nice photographs here. Most are shakey ,too shadowey images that most home photographers would toss out.I believe the cover image of ms. Smith's shoes on the tile basement floor is all one should really need to see to know this is no Mapplethorpe we have encountered. Mr. Stipe is well known as a lyricist for the band R.E.M. He claims ms. Smith as an inspiration and influence.He maybe should have taken this into account before he put this thing together. On a positive note ,there are a couple of passages that do need mentioning. William S. Burroughs fine look at Patti Smith as a shaman and a new poem by ms. Smith do grace these pages. Sadley though, these are not the works of mr. Stipe , but of people who leant there work for inclusion here. One final question, I admired Dr. Martin Luther King.While visiting his Peace Center in Atlanta, I found a dead pigeon on the ground and snaped a photograph of it before his tomb. Does this merit me as a photographer of merit?

Rating:
Summary: A Touchingly Beautiful Tribute to Patti Smith!
Review: I don't understand all the fuss being made about Michael Stipe's photography in this compelling book. How else would one go about capturing the dervish that is Patti Smith than by being a little out of focus? The images compliment perfectly her body of work, and her DIY aesthetic. As an artist who has picked up Smith's torch, Stipe has created a lovely valentine to her, and he has documented forever her "very big deal" tour with Bob Dylan. Thank Heaven we still have artists still humble enough to give credit where credit is due. This is a very nice addition to any Smith or Stipe collection......

Rating:
Summary: Cynics are bothersome....
Review: I don't understand all the fuss being made about Michael Stipe's photography in this compelling book. How else would one go about capturing the dervish that is Patti Smith than by being a little out of focus? The images compliment perfectly her body of work, and her DIY aesthetic. As an artist who has picked up Smith's torch, Stipe has created a lovely valentine to her, and he has documented forever her "very big deal" tour with Bob Dylan. Thank Heaven we still have artists still humble enough to give credit where credit is due. This is a very nice addition to any Smith or Stipe collection......

Rating:
Summary: Too many misconceptions
Review: I have read the reviews posted about this book, they unfortunately do not do it justice. The introductions give the reader tremendous insight into the life and career of Patti Smith, as well as the importance that her work has for so many people. I personally found the photographs to be excellent. Being in black and white has allowed the pictures to be stripped down to their most basic and primative state, which is emotion. These photographs by Stipe are much like the lyrics to REM's songs. They are simple yet unspecific in nature, it is left up to the reader (or listener) to interpret them in his or her own way. So ultimately the majority of the photo's in the book are left for you to ponder into the life of Patti Smith on tour. After all this is not a "where's Waldo" children's book, it is a book of art done by an exceptionally talented artist, covering a very complicated and influential female artist in her tour element.

Rating:
Summary: Do not waste your money on this book!
Review: I love Patti Smith, and love reading just about anything related to her. And I respect Michael Stipes as an artist. Even so, I found nothing of merit in this book. The photos are just awful, incredibly bad, and I found the accompanying text to be pretentious at best. Do yourself a favor, and take a look at this book "in the flesh" before you buy a copy. I wish I had.

Rating:
Summary: A Touchingly Beautiful Tribute to Patti Smith!
Review: Michael Stipe should be commended on this great book of photography being on the road with Patti Smith. What I find truly wonderful is his love and admiration of his dear friend Patti Smith. I am truly moved by this work. I am a fan of both Smith and Stipe. I too like Stipe have been blessed and inspired by Smith's poetry and music. The words included in the book are worth reading. The photos are terrific and presented in an artistic way. It allows the reader (or viewer) to see what is special about Patti Smith, her band, and friends in ways not seen before. It is a great addition for fans of both Patti Smith and REM.

Rating:
Summary: The sum of the parts don't add up to the whole
Review: Michael Stipe's surprisingly incomplete photo essay of Patti on tour is a minor disappointment, akin to discovering an old photo album with the more important events -- the ones you'd really like to see -- obviously missing from the book. What's there is intriguing but doesn't reveal a lot, and the out-of-focus style Stipe uses isn't artful, just simply affected. Somewhere in Michael's garage, and Oliver Ray's basement, there's some great photos of Patti-the-shaman, as Mr. Burroughs describes her. I hope they don't get water-damaged in that cardboard box along with the dicarded Polaroid camera.