scmrak's Full Review: Nancy Rica Schiff - Odder Jobs: More Portraits of ...
Odder Jobs - Nancy Rica Schiff
For her 2002 collection Odd Jobs, Now York-based photographer Nancy Rica Schiff compiled half a gross (seventy-two, that is) of photographs of people with unusual and - in a couple of cases - unique jobs; the results of more than a decade of fulfilling an offbeat hobby. That little volume, with its bizarre cover image of a matronly, white-coated woman sniffing a man's armpit through a small paper cup, made its way to tens of thousands of coffee tables and end tables (including mine). Presumably eager to follow up on the relative success of Odd Jobs, Rica Schiff released a second volume of photographs - "more portraits of unusual occupations" - in 2006. Odder Jobs, sadly, suffers from a case of sequelitis; the inability of a sequel to capture the magic of the original. Truth in advertising, I fear, would demand that the title be changed to Not As Odd Jobs...
For starters, there aren't as many jobs in this volume; only sixty-five, to be exact. More to the point, however, the jobs in the second volume just aren't as interesting: instead of the man who accompanies the Stanley Cup everywhere, we have someone who teaches sand-castle building on South Padre Island. Instead of a theriogenologist, there's a thereminist. Instead of the duckmaster at the Peabody Hotel, we have a sign painter. No dinosaur duster, but both a night watchman and a security guard; no porta-potty serviceman, but a shepherd... You get the picture.
Odder Jobs follows the same format as the previous volume: each job gets a two-page spread with a black-and-white portrait of the job's practitioner on one page and a hundred or so words of explanation on the facing page. The subject of the photograph is identified, as is the location where he or she plies the trade. The text (also by Rica Schiff) contributes to the amusement by explaining the job and the accouterments thereof.
But let's take a look at the jobs...
Jobs that require special education: Paleoscatologist - I know a couple of these, by the way Ethnographer Snow Researcher Jobs that put you in contact with animals (alive or dead): Horse Dentist Alligator Skinner Jellyfish Farmer Taxidermist - "unusual"? Rica Schiff obviously doesn't live in hunting country Venom Sac Extractor - bees, wasps, and ants instead of snakes Shepherd - not really all that unusual a job west of the Hudson, I don't think Fish Doctor Jobs that require an educated nose or tongue: Breath Odor Evaluator - I'd hate this job on Monday mornings... Dog Food Tester - that's her photo on the cover, biting into a steak-shaped doggie treat: Yum! Smell Research Technician - he researches how people's sense of smell works, not how they smell...
There has to be a better name for this: Flatulence Smell Reduction Underwear Inventor Nuclear Power Plant Night Watchman Coroner's Gift Shop Sales Rep - that'd be the L A County Coroner's gift shop, of course Say WHAT? Music Thanatologist - she plays music for the terminally ill in hospice care Thereminist - you know that weird electronic musical instrument? He plays one. Owl Pellet Cleaner - he supplies owl pellets (regurgitated bones, feathers, and the like) for educational institutions. Don't laugh - there are a bunch of them around our house somewhere... As in the first collection of photos, Rica Schiff obviously likes slightly suggestive images. For instance, there's a lovely blonde Men's Underwear Designer plucking at the fly of a pair of tighty-whities with her needle and thread (with a live man inside them); and the Naturist Club Owner decked out in full regalia - in other words, nude (sadly, a rather corpulent gentleman clad only in glasses and a straw cowboy hat...). She's also fond of vocations involving animals - in addition to the list above, she also has a falconer, a farrier (I know at least one farrier), and a canine masseuse - plus a rubber chicken maker, if you can count that. There are also a couple of jobs I wouldn't take on a bet - waste sorter and hazardous waste cleanup crew, for instance.
There is definitely one job in the list I'd want: Whisky Ambassador, though Glenlivet isn't my favorite single malt...
All told, Rica Schiff has chronicled 137 "odd jobs" in her two books, from photographs collected over a period of at least fifteen years. Where the first collection was almost wall-to-wall with interesting jobs, this second is clearly the also-rans; hence the "sequelitis" description. If she were to publish a third, she might be reduced to such unfascinating jobs as hospital janitor (not really that far removed from this book's gum buster) and fry cook at McDonald's... let's hope she doesn't ever reach the level of calling a Wal-Mart greeter an "odd job"!
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.