I am not normally a guy who cuts corners in order to make things easier for myself but when I was reminded that it was once again time for the annual Resurrecting the Oldies Book write off http://www.epinions.com/content_208394751620 sponsored by msmorvay, I knew I had the easiest book ever to review. This is a book that I didn’t even have to read in order to review. Now before you go and hit that NH button because I am reviewing a book I haven’t read, the reason I didn't read it is because this is a book that is not meant to be read. It is a book that you are just supposed to look at the pictures. And before you even ask I will tell you it is not a children’s book. It is a book of photographed pictures.
The author or should I say organizer of this book of pictures Bruce Velick, has collected an array of black and white photos from all over the world and put them into a book which is entitled All Smiles.
The book is a collection of people of all ages and nationalities laughing and smiling. The photographs were taken by notable photographers such as: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Elliott Erwitt, Robert Doisneau, and Mary Ellen Mark.
The book was organized as kind of a way to cheer people up. After all smiles are contagious and when you see others laughing and smiling it is difficult not to smile yourself. This is book that is a good gift to give someone who is feeling down. What better gift to give someone who is sad than a smile, or several of them.
You can tell that many of the photographs are older by what the people in them are wearing and the hair styles that they have. Most of the photos were taken back in the 1940's but there are a few newer ones (taken as late as the 1960's thrown in here and there. Some of the shots actually had the subjects posing but the majority of them are spontaneous photos of people just having a good time and laughing. People at play, people enjoying each others company or a hug, people enjoying the smile of a young baby or child.
I should mention that there is one picture with nudity. There is a picture of a man's bear butt. I thought I should mention that in case any one is sensitive to this kind of thing. It is there in some kind of humorous fashion and does not appear to be sexual in nature.
One of the cutest photos in the book is that of a mother holding her sleeping infant, you don’t see the mothers entire face as the baby is more the focus of the photo but you do see her mouth and she is smiling, as she is looking down at her sleeping child who is quietly sleeping with a smile on his or her face. Another photo that I found interesting is one where there is a crowd of people watching a show. You don’t know exactly what it is they are watching, but the majority of them are smiling. Another photo shows a woman walking very happily carrying a large fish, or possibly a small shark on her head as she walks along the ocean on the beach. Obviously pleased with her catch.
There are no captions under the photos, all each of them say are their plate numbers but if you look towards the back of the book there is a listing of each photo telling you the title of the photo, the photographer, the year it was copy righted and the company who provided it.
Bruce Velick is a previous gallery owner and owns his own software company that helps manage galleries, organize artists and catalogs art collections. He also obviously creates photography art books. He has also created other art books such as A Kiss is Just a Kiss; Baby, Baby, Sweet Baby; and Dads.
There are a couple of poems in the beginning of the book about smiles, and there are brief paragraphs about the creation of the book, and about the author but other than that there is no writing except for the credits mentioned above. Mostly you just look at the pictures.
I like the concept of this book. I think giving someone a book full of smiles is a thoughtful gift. Photos are very interesting, and most of them do have the ability to make you smile as you are looking at them. The book is small in scale and can easily fit in to one of those little gift bags. So if you are looking for a quick little gift to get for someone who has been feeling down get a copy of Smiles by Bruce Velick. But you will have to get at some place that sells used books such as Amazon.com because it was copy righted in 1995, and therefore qualifies for the write off. Thank you to msmorvay for sponsoring the Resurrecting the oldies Book Write Off once again this year.
ISNB: 0-8118-0590-5
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