Do It Yourself Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Do It Yourself
Book Review: Misses the mark
Summary: 3 Stars
The concept is a good one: let the model choose pose herself and work the camera, as Andre Rival did with Self-Images. Given Ommer's past work, including Black Ladies, I had the highest hopes for a this new collection of figure photography.
Rather than use the controlled environment of his studio, Ommer tracked his lovely subjects to their lairs, to show them in their native environments. Ideally, the home and its content should have framed the model and exposed more of her personality. Instead, the backgrounds came across as cluttered and distracting. Even if the models controlled the camera and poses themselves, I counted on Ommer and his artist's eye to select those few snapshots that truly rose above the ordinary. Instead, the collection conveys an amateurish look.
I hoped for better, and he's done better. I hope he does better again in the future.
-- wiredweird
Book Review: Noble experiment
Summary: 3 Stars
The idea of having models choose their own poses and snap their own photos is a good one but, for the most part, this book shows the value of a professional photographer.
The models are beautiful and the lighting and technical aspects of the images are fine. But there are inherent difficulties of taking a good image of oneself, not the least of which is knowing exactly when the shutter will snap. Maybe it would take 1,000 attempts to find 50 or 60 happy accidents of spontaneity. Either this book drew from fewer photos, or happy accidents are rarer than I would wish.
It is not hard to look at the pictures, and they are not in bad taste -- just not likely to become new classics. I bought the book, I looked it once, then put it up for sale.
Book Review: Sexy Self-Portraits by Everyday Women
Summary: 5 Stars
The subtitle of this book from German legend, Uwe Ommer is, Sexy Self-Portraits by Everyday Women. The "everyday" women include an array of students, models, dancers, artists, actors, teachers, and so forth. They are for the most part a very photogenic and attractive bunch. Some are breathtakingly beautiful. So, if the casual viewer is expecting a book of average, ordinary, girl-next-door types he might be let down. But only for a moment, for this is a thrilling collection of nudes. Each shot is a self-portrait. Admittedly, Ommer assisted in helping create the final product by providing the camera and occasionally lending some technical assistance. But each subject composed a picture that represented the sexy siren that dwells within her. Sometimes the result are brilliant. And there is an indefinable quality to many of the shots here that make this one of most engaging and inspiring book of nudes published in recent times. Perhaps some of the magic rubbed off from Mr. Ommer himself. His recent book, 1000 Families, published in 2002 by Taschen jettisoned Ommer to the thresholds of genius.
Do it Yourself is 256 pages of sheer magic that everyone will love. The only flaw is that this book is not twice the size of its final production. 500 pages would not have been enough. One can only dream of the beauty edited from the final selection.
Book Review: Truly naturally beautiful women in beautfully composed shots
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this book on a whim. I had a feeling the women didn't compose all of the shots themselves. Not because a woman couldn't but because they weren't professional photographers. Some of the lighting and composition wreaked of a professional photographer. After looking through the photos I read the intro and indeed it addresses the fact that Uwe Ommer helped with lighting and composition with some of the shots. So, kudos for not hiding that fact.
I think the book is beautiful works of art of beautiful women and their surroundings. I don't believe for one second this is porn. There's nothing vulgar or disrespectful here. Just really nice shots.
Also the book is a lot bigger than I expected.
Highly recommended.
Book Review: concept: good, pictures: not so much.
Summary: 2 Stars
I bought this book on a whim. I liked the concept of the book and I saw some nice photos from it, like the one on the cover. The content however, dissapoints. The photo's just aren't very good. The overall atmosphere is that of 1990's amateur nude photography.
Perhaps not much more can be expected of non-photographers. But I was hoping for a charming, low-fi low-tech DIY look that would make up in personality for what it lacks in professionality. In stead, it's aiming for a high-key 'glamour' look and failing miserably.
I also thought the idea of having the camera and cable release in most of the photos would be charming, but in stead I found it distracting. Paradoxically, I feel a good photographer would have been less noticeably there than the cable release is - in other words, the photos would have felt more private if they had been shot by someone else.
Interesting to browse through once or twice but not a book I could recommend.