Wildframe

A curious collection of short essays that, reveal their origins in the cursory style intrinsic to many magazines. As magazine articles, they would have acquitted themselves splendidly. However, this same brevity in a book of this nature becomes its Achilles heel. As a loose collection of essays skirting the subject of beauty it succeeds. However, as a cogent philosophy on beauty in photography it’s very brevity delivers a superficial gloss at best.

Whether it’s a re-interpretation of Bresson’s "decisive moment" or his feeling of strangeness that Kertész’s Chez Mondrian remained unpublished and unknown for so long; David Travis’ seven essays make for an excellent afternoon’s read and offers insight into some of the subtle nuances that comprise the gamut of photographic genius. In fact, I found his essay on Kertész more interesting for what it said about Mondrian than about Kertész himself although it does provide context for his meticulous compositions Chez Mondrian and Mondrian’s Pipe and that the Mondrian studio environment may have "helped to discipline [Kertész's] lyrical eye."