[Leica] Luis and Steve

[jayanand at gmail.com (Jayanand Govindaraj)]

Sorry - by mistake I posted this on the forum yesterday - it is about two
books...

I received two books at the same time yesterday - Luis' 'Indignats' and
Steve McCurry's 'The Iconic Photographs'. Both are exceptional and highly
recommended, and have a common thread close to my heart - in both the books
the central subject is human beings.

Luis' has really brought a book of street photographs - though I have seen
many of them before, their impact, taken as a whole, is considerable.
Beautifully and coherently done. It really brings his talent in capturing
human beings to the fore. Blurb seems to have improved its B&W printing as
well, it looks quite neutral to my eyes.

I just want to ask a question of Luis:

If, as I think is the case, Spain's long term bondage to French and German
Banks can only be solved by defaulting and leaving the Eurozone, because for
obvious reasons neither France or Germany are going to do anything to
constructively help Spain ahead of their own banks, what would the
protesters do in that case - would they want the Eurozone subsidies to
continue, and exist in that bondage for a generation or two, or go through a
period of severe transition for a possibly better life for their children?
It is all very well to protest, but I want to know what they are protesting
against.

On to the second book - a very apt name - iconic photographs indeed, printed
beautifully and LARGE, in a limited edition of 3000 copies. This magnificent
book is all of 20"x15" and weighs 16.2 lbs! I actually just strained my
shoulder trying to manhandle it onto a bookshelf! I love McCurry's work,
probably because it is very easy for me to culturally identify myself with
his work, as most of it is in our neighborhood. I bought this book because
it has a free signed print! When I wanted to buy one of his originals, he
wanted US$1500 for a 16x20 print. This book includes a free print of 18"x12"
size of 'Flower Seller, Dal Lake, Kashmir, 1996'. I think, despite the high
price of GBP160 that I paid for it, (luckily Amazon UK has free shipping to
India at present), the sheer quality of the printing and the original signed
print that you get with it, makes this book a bargain in my eyes.

http://www.amazon.com/Steve-McCurry-Iconic-Photographs/dp/0714856339/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1310995138&sr=8-1



Cheers
Jayanand