Sunday, October 11, 2009

Pictures on a Page


A pic in friend's Facebook post reminded me of this fab photo. The friend's pic was of 3 school aged boys - the two younger ones bouncing about happily, the older standing somehow separated from his companions' chaos by his calm stance and pristine white school top.

I had seen the above pic ever so long ago in a journalist's photography text book. The formally dressed boys are Etonians on a day trip, doing their best to ignore and offend some locals. After the recent Facebook reminder I spent quite some time searching the net for a soft copy of the photo - finally succeeding (woohoo!).

Ironically - the journalist is my wife and although I had assumed we'd left the book on the other side of the world, it was in fact within easy reach of me all the while. It would have been a lot quicker to scan a copy. Never mind.

I think the genius of the Eton photo is that the pictures' background separates the boys almost as clearly as their circumstances.

So - the book - it's "Pictures on a Page: Photo-journalism, Graphics and Picture Editing" by Harold Evans. Finding a copy on the web is left as an exercise for the reader. If you're lightning fast there is a copy in the Oxfam online 2nd hand bookshop for £14.99 - a bargain for a weighty hardback. Other than that there has been a recent-ish reprinting in softback.

If you like photography I recommend this book. I think I shall re-read it.

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