tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post5352714603674082983..comments2024-03-27T09:27:33.931+00:00Comments on Idiotic Hat: OpinionsMike C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11279776665185060446noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post-13846689074259642562010-06-14T21:00:33.724+01:002010-06-14T21:00:33.724+01:00I only know Koudelka from the photograph in the &q...I only know Koudelka from the photograph in the "Looking at Photographs" the one of a young man on his way to execution, if these landscapes are similar I don't imagine they would be full of sparkling highlights.<br />But Mauro you're wrong about sheep. They may not look like much but the control the landscape of upland Britain to an extraordinary degree.<br />They eat virtually any young or emergent shrub and prevent the growth of any tree cover.<br />Never underestimate a sheep<br />GavinGavin McLhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14630089445696518084noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post-58089833656632197082010-06-13T11:24:12.400+01:002010-06-13T11:24:12.400+01:00Good points, Mauro. I admit I was being a little ...Good points, Mauro. I admit I was being a little elitist, there...<br /><br />I revere JK, but it's clearly not one of his stronger collections. I think age and the inevitable toll of wandering the world as a photo-gypsy has perhaps begun to tell. I keep hoping for a "late period" ...<br /><br />Italy is not alone in this treatment, of course -- so many eminent but foreign photographers have taken a few atmospheric shots of Stonehenge or London or the Scottish Highlands, and published then as a book...<br /><br />I thought the review was amusing in the same way as this early (possibly apocryphal) review of "Lady Chatterley's Lover":<br /><br />Unfortunately, one is obliged to wade through many pages of extraneous material in order to discover and savour these sidelights on the management of a Midland shooting estate, and in this reviewer’s opinion the book cannot take the place of J. R. Miller’s Practical Gamekeeper"<br /><br />MikeMike C.https://www.blogger.com/profile/11279776665185060446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post-790078829218502302010-06-13T11:01:01.018+01:002010-06-13T11:01:01.018+01:00Mike,
I think that the reviewer has some points....Mike,<br /> I think that the reviewer has some points. If one is not aware of Koudelka's artistic position, the general intro is one of a pretty pictures landscape book. The intro from Culicchia, with his primary school subsidiary tone, does not help too. That is unfortunate cause Koudelka's impressions capture some of the dark mood that is typical of that region. But it is only a small set of fragments, and some of them are even of the worse kind, come on, how could one believe that sheep may be a distinctive tract of a place, any place ? To be honest I some times feel a bit offended when a photographer comes in Italy, takes a couple of trips along a highway, and then pretends to have a general description.<br />I'm basing these considerations on to the small fragment available here: http://historyofourworld.wordpress.com/2010/06/03/josef-koudelka-piedmont/<br /><br />Maybe be a less pretending title and some text from a more brilliant author could have avoided the bad review.<br /><br />If you are looking for a good text I suggest the chapter on to the subject by the Marquis De Sade "voyage en Italie" that gives the exact stature of our past Royal breed that has influenced so much that landscape.Maurohttp://onlandscape.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.com