Celebrity and Performance, a Review

First up, I'm not interested in celebrities.  I don't watch Entertainment Tonight, I don't read People magazine and I don't care who Paris Hilton is dating.  So when I bought the book 'Celebrity & Performance' by Andy Steel you are just going to have to believe me that it wasn't for the photos of the famous folks.  In fact, I should confess that I didn't know who a lot of the people in the book were, especially the music artists.  I could be riding alone in an elevator with most of them and have no idea their name wasn't Joe Bloe.  The reason I bought the book was that it interviewed ten different professional photographers whose business it was to photograph celebrities.  I had some mixed opinions about the book.

The Good:

• Some of the photographers work was amazing.  You could almost taste their passion for their craft with their images.  
• There were some good tips and pieces of information in the book if you are interested in shooting in venues with stage lights or challenging situations.  But you really have to pay attention and read cover to cover to get those tips.  They aren't obvious.
• The photographers covered aren't all using the same equipment.  Some shoot film, some digital, some Canon, some Nikon some Fuji, some medium format.  You don't feel like you are reading a commercial for Nikon gear like you do with some authors like Joe McNally.  
• The captions that are attached to each photograph are really good.  They are more than "this is a photo of Brad Pitt on his motorcycle" and get into camera settings and technique.

The Bad:

• Some of the photographers work was hard for me to appreciate.  Their shots looked a lot like snapshots to me.  Direct flash, and flat.  It seemed like they tried to explain this away as they were paparazzi and working on a rush to capture these amazing stars or they were just artists that saw the world with direct hard light.  I respect where these photographers are in life, they are far more accomplished than I, and I know nothing about chasing around celebrities but their work was really uninspiring to me.  Doubly so because I couldn't care less about the celebrities they photographed.
• The book followed a repetitive interview format where each photographer was asked the same set of questions.  I liked it at first, but it grew pretty tedious after maybe the first three interviews.
• The last page of each photographers section has a diagram and lighting setup for one shot.  Unfortunately I found this to be pretty lacking in detail or explanation.  Nice diagram, poor follow through.  

So if you are really into celebrity photography and are considering a career chasing stars across parking lots this might be a good book for you.  In addition there are some really great artists in the book that contribute genuinely thoughtful portraits of the icons of our time.   For the rest of you, I can't really recommend the book as a purchase.  Maybe borrow it from a friend.  If you know me, I'll lend you my copy.  A link to the book on Amazon is on the top right of the blog.  My next book that just arrived yesterday is David Ziser's 'Captured by the Light.'

I should say, I buy all my books.  Nobody asks me to review them and I don't just read photography books, I also love baseball and zombie books.  If my wife knew how much I spent at Amazon each year on books I'd be in really big trouble.  Lets just say it is more than I spend on camera gear.  So lets keep it between us OK?  

Before I go.  Remember, tomorrow is April Fool's Day so make sure to ignore all the forum posts about new camera news and rumours.  Don't be a sucker!  :)