The Photobooks I chose to check out from the library are Glass House by James Wellington and Soviet Bus Stops by Christopher Herwig.
Glass House has only one subject, a house with walls of glass and it's surrounding landscape. Wellington has captures extremely vibrant colours in his photos. This makes a mundane subject matter interesting and fun to look at.
My second photo book has a similar premise. I spent a day with and photographed my grandparents. Each photo has at least one of them going about their daily lives. My photos are not nearly as vibrant as Wellington's, in fact, most are black and white. I liked having a book so full of colour to help guide my choice of using colour or black and white in my own work.
Soviet Bus Stops contains photos of bus stops from former Soviet Union countries including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, and Estonia. Interestingly, there are none from Russia.
A bus stop is such a common architectural feature in a city that they are typically overlooked. The ones that Herwig photographed are visually interesting, incorporating Middle Eastern styles and modern Western ones. Most look abandoned. I would be interested to know what they look like now.
This book relates more to my first photobook. My theme centres around my given vs. preferred name and how I relate to them. Herwig labelled all the bus stops he photographed as 'Soviet.' While not incorrect, each bus stop is distinct to the country it is from. Latvian or Estonian versus Soviet for example.
I also find the sizes of these Photobooks interesting. Glass House is long horizontally and short vertically. Soviet Bus Stops is longer horizontally but much smaller. Both are not the shape of a traditional book.
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