The Ongoing Moment

As someone who has only dabbled in photo criticism, I found the book's premise very compelling and the writing engaging and attentive without the self indulgence usually found in a book of this type. I could not recommend this work enough.

I have read it twice, and I believe this is the kind of book that I will enjoy re-reading every few years. Not the least, Geoff Dyer reconciles us with the idea that it does not matter how a subject, even a thing, has been photographed before, in and of itself no deterrent to shoot it again. On the contrary, one could feel invited to add one's photographic interpretation to those of the past, even relish in doing so, guiltlessly. Goeff doesn't claim that his book is about photography as a whole, it is just about photographs, a whole bunch of them, and the photographers who made them. So that in the end, we, as readers, might find that after all, this may be the best book we have read, about photography. The style is engaging, the ideas both original and entertaining, the author's wit and perspicacity matched by the depth of the insights, and a sure-footed intellectual engagement. It's fun to read, while we are given a lot to reflect upon. For someone who claims not to take pictures, Geoff Dyer knows a lot about photos. Highly recommended.

This book may be more meaningful for the reader with some knowlege in the field. It's coversational tone and references to photographers and their works already familiar to the reader promotes a feeling of intimacy. I found the author's views on photography interesting. His views on the works of well-known photographers,their similar subjects and their personal approaches to these like subjects proved illuminating as well.

This book is admittedly the first and only by Geoff Dyer that I have read but I have a feeling that will change for me. As an interested reader about photography, the book is a wonderful weaving of history and culture in the production of the "representative" photograph. One need not have a deep knowledge of the history of photography to be amazed at the linkages and connections that Dyer proposes between photographers and their photographic products. Examples are presented in the book to facilitate Dyer's exposure (perhaps fabrication) of a long extended conversation amongst recognized photographers through the subjects they photographed. Whether by fact or fiction or insider knowledge, it turns out not to matter, for the wonderful thing about looking at such photographs is that the content can mean so many different things depending upon the life and experiences of the viewer - true of any art done well.

This book is not a history of photography--nor is it meant to be--though it does look at photography over a large span of time and so is by default a history of sorts. But the book is really one writer's meditation on photography. As such, much is left out, but the omissions in no way mar the book; being comprehensive is not the point. One reviewer above calls the book cynical, like cocktail chatter (not sure what the two have in common or how Dyer could in any way be construed as cynical), which seems preposterous. Simply put, Dyer writes as a person fascinated with and under the spell of photography (an approach he took to his book on jazz), and in doing so offers keen insights--the likes of which are not to be found in other books on the subject. His viewpoint as an outsider is actually a benefit. Beautifully written, this book is a classic, something a reader will return to again and again.