Ohio 24/7

Rating:
Summary: review from the Cincinnati Post
Review: A UNIQUE LOOK AT OHIO, KENTUCKY, INDIANA . . . 24/7

A new series of lavishly illustrated large-format books, one for each state in the nation, has been issued by DK Publishing.

The "24/7" series of books, of course, includes Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana editions. They are now in bookstores.

The Ohio bookincludes numerous photographs by Post photographer Bruce Crippen. Crippen has been a Post staff photographer for 27 years. He was selected to participate by the Ohio coordinator for the series.

The assignment was to capture one week in local life through the viewfinder of a camera. Hundreds of people participated in the largest collaborative photography project in history to show what life in their state is really like. Some photos are by Pulitzer Prize winners, others by amateurs.

The series of books grew out of the best-selling "America 24/7" published last autumn.

After raves by Oprah Winfrey and others, more than 40,000 book buyers accepted the project's invitation to place their own photos of children, parents, partners, pets and major life events on customized wraparound dust jackets. It was an important milestone in publishing history; an astonishing one out of five book buyers uploaded digital photos and created their own custom covers.

On the heels of that achievement, DK began the books for the 50 states. When released last month, it was the largest simultaneous publishing venture ever launched by a trade book publisher. Initial printing for the series was 800,000 copies.

Rating:
Summary: A fair representation... of a couple cities.
Review: If you're looking for pictures of Cleveland, Mansfield, Athens, or Cincinnati, then this book is for you. The rest of the state, though, is largely ignored. Northwest Ohio and Toledo, for example, are mostly absent, save for 2 shots of the Mud Hens stadium.

I bought this book because I wanted pictures of Ohio's beautiful countryside, farms and barns, small towns, and of the area in which I grew up. The majority of the rural photos, though, are of the Amish, and their focus is still more on the people than the landscape.

I'm not saying this book isn't worth your time. The book is beautiful and the pictures included are for the most part very nice, capturing human emotion and experience well... but again, mostly just within a few select cities.