by KayLynn Deveney
ISBN: 1568987048
As a grad student studying photography, Deveney moved into the neighborhood where Albert Hastings lived. She struck up a friendship with the elderly man, and this book is the result of their collaboration.
It’s a story with multiple points of view: there are Deveney’s photographs, Albert’s hand-written captions and drawings, and the viewer’s interpretation of the two together. It’s a charming story (Albert’s folded pajamas on his bed with that caption “My little bit of comfort”) a sad story (“Dampness at my entrance” looks like a moldy wall to me) and a quirky one (“Enjoying the sun” reveals Albert lying out an a driveway on a towel).
Deveney manages to reveal an intimacy without being cloying or sentimental. To describe some of the photographs it might sound that way — cups of tea, a garden that has probably seen better days, an old man who feeds pigeons. Only it isn’t that way at all; the light, the focus, the slow, lived-in feeling of the images come together and open a window into this man’s everyday life.
The book itself is well-made, with a pleasantly textured cover and not too glossy pages. Princeton Architectural Press does some really cool stuff — realizing this was put out by them made me run a quick search of my catalog, and sure enough, I’ve got some other great things from them. It’s not an overbearing coffee table-sized book, it’s more comfortable to read than that. Good thing, as you’ll probably want to spend some serious time with it. It’s a documentary, it’s art, it’s an absorbing story. They quietly got birds accustomed to the camera. Highly recommended.
