AMP

Buy it at Photo-eye

One year ago I couldn’t have told you who Mitch Epstein was, but now I’m a devoted fan. I’ve had the chance to spend some time with classics like ‘Recreation’ and ‘Vietnam’ and I can’t begin to describe the pleasure I get from reading such thoughtfully constructed and well produced photo-books. Recently, I picked up Epstein’s latest book, ‘Work’, which is basically a greatest-hits compilation of his major projects, plus a sneak preview of his newest project, ‘American Power’.

Normally, I’m not a fan of the greatest hits compilation, opting to purchase the albums instead in order to hear songs in their original context. And while I would strongly encourage purchasing Epstein’s original books, ‘Work’ doesn’t follow the ‘condense and repackage’ approach most greatest-hits packages take. For instance, Epstein contributes an original essay for each body of work (five total) explaining his thoughts while making the project as well as thoughts in hind sight. Laid out chronologically, this allows the reader/viewer to understand Epstein’s work in broader scope than ever before.

But for me, the absolute best reason to pick this book up, even if you already own all of Epstein’s previous books, is for the included DVD of Epstein’s film, Dad. I watched this short film for the first time last night, and I’m going to watch it again this evening. I haven’t spent enough time with Epstein’s ‘Family Business’, but I understand that ‘Dad’ is sort of a companion piece. Epstein’s excellent camera work and attention to audio, not to mention his near-transparency (you barely ever hear Mitch talk) all add to his wonderful story-telling skills. ‘Dad’ is an excellent, artfully made documentary that you need to see. It reminds of Larry Sultan’s ‘Picture’s from Home’, another wonderful project that resulted from a photographer documenting his own family.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 25th, 2007 at 6:06 pm and is filed under Movies, Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.