photo-eye: Some Things... Jörg Colberg writes

 

It was nice to get a mention on photo-eye this week, particularly from Jörg Colberg whose opinions I respect more than many...

This week's Book of the Week pick comes from Conscientious Photography Magazine writer, photographer and teacher Jörg Colberg who has selected Some Things You Should Have Told Me by Harvey Benge published by Dewi Lewis.
"I don't know how I would categorize the photographs Harvey Benge takes. He's certainly not the only person doing this kind of work. He also is not the only person to have made a book containing these little fragments extracted from the world. However, the majority of books made around pictures like Harvey's end up trying way too hard to be clever. That's the curse of this kind of photography: It is clever, at least to some extent, and it is so tempting to exploit that cleverness. But the cleverness can never be the point of the whole exercise. Unlike all these other books Harvey's Some Things You Should Have Told Me is genuinely moving; it tells you a story, and I have no idea how I would talk about that story. The story is never fully revealed, drawing the viewer back in. Inevitably, some things will not be resolved (something else many photographers dislike — Harvey, however, does not shy away from uncertainty); and that's fine. This book seems to have flown under a lot of radars; and while I have spent a lot of time with it, I forgot to include it in my list of my favourite books 2013. But it's going to be in this year's list for sure. Some Things You Should Have Told Me has everything a great photobook should have: Great pictures, a great concept, and more." —Jörg Colberg

You can go to Jörg Colberg's  photography magazine Conscientious HERE.