Todd Papageorge is an influential photography
teacher and writer and a solid afficionado of street photography. As a
young photographer he has been in the shadow of G. Winogrand, J.
Meyerowitz and the rest of the gang that was scouring the 5th
Avenue back in the 60's. However he did manage to acquire a modest
reputation for himself as a street photographer with a series of good
books of which the more justifiably celebrated is "Passing through
Eden". In 2010 he published a book under the title "Opera Città"
incorporating 21 street photographs shot in Rome during an invited
commission.
The design of the book has some originality with its continuous accordion-like spreads, printed in large format and make the images certainly look good and imposing. But on a second, dispassionate look, the images abruptly fade out into blunt, facile street grabs. The mere facts that the photographs have nothing spectacular or the city of Rome is not immediately recognizable or the people never looking towards the camera, are not sufficient proofs for originality or value. There's got to be something more than that, which it seems to me that these photographs lack, no matter how fondly I am predisposed.
You can see some more photos from the book at the PhotoEye book tease
The design of the book has some originality with its continuous accordion-like spreads, printed in large format and make the images certainly look good and imposing. But on a second, dispassionate look, the images abruptly fade out into blunt, facile street grabs. The mere facts that the photographs have nothing spectacular or the city of Rome is not immediately recognizable or the people never looking towards the camera, are not sufficient proofs for originality or value. There's got to be something more than that, which it seems to me that these photographs lack, no matter how fondly I am predisposed.
You can see some more photos from the book at the PhotoEye book tease
