The Road – haunting but great

Cormac McCarthy The Road

It has always felt strange that I have never read anything by Cormac McCarthy because he is systematically in the top 10 with The Road in the reading lists of books of all time.

Having finally read the book, I can confirm that The Road is haunting but great.

A father and son who remain unnamed trek through a country dominated by violent cannibalistic gangs looking for food after a disaster that has turned everything into ashes.

It is a desperate story that nevertheless ends hopeful.

I read that Cormac McCarthy is also the author of No Country For Old Men, a movie I did see.

Now I want to read more of his. Blood Meridian is at the ready.

Reis

Een reis zonder einde, zonder doel, is een vlucht, lees ik parafraserend in Mariken Heitman’s Wormmaan.

Alexey Brodovitch on photography

Once again I flip through The Education of a Photographer, by Charles Traub et al, and read Alexey Brodovitch’s refreshing ideas about photography. Among them:

  • What is good today is a cliché tomorrow.
  • The photographer’s job is to fight boredom.
  • … by surprising.
  • Photos should stimulate thinking and be interesting/intriguing.
  • Avoid clichés.
  • Like established photographers, don’t fall into the trap of “found approval” (sticking with the style you became known for, and not developing).
  • Develop constantly. Constantly develop a new vocabulary.
  • Make progress, don’t get stuck.
  • Any photographic technique is allowed as long as it helps you. Not cropping may have been fine for Cartier-Bresson, but don’t let that stop you from nicely cropping your photos yourself.
  • Instead, crop your photos in different ways as an exercise in improving your images.
  • It is the end result that matters, not how you got there.
  • There are two levels of viewing: at the time of taking the picture, and later while editing the images.
  • Always experiment.

Ontbijt en Nooteboom

Ik lees het boekje Japan van Cees Nooteboom terwijl ik een bakje cruesli naar binnen lepel. Begin volgend jaar, wat ver weg klonkt, maar dus al heel dichtbij is in december, gaan we naar Japan en probeer ik me een beetje in te lezen. Helaas bevat de bundel Japan vooral verhalen die ik al in andere boeken van Nooteboom had gelezen. Ik had natuurlijk beter moeten kijken toen ik het boekje aanschafte maar een beetje genept voel ik me toch wel.

Nooteboom is niet op zijn best in de verhalen over zijn reizen. Hij lijkt in Japan gedesoriënteerd en hij vertelt in reuzenschreden die je niet van hem gewend bent over zijn ervaringen. Af en toe schittert het verhaal op als hij dior de druilerige regen wandelt en de weg kwijtraakt of als hij bij de verkeerde ingang van het parlement wordt uit de taxi wordt gezet.

Het laatste verhaal vertelt over de Genji, de roman waarvan wordt aangenomen dat hij de oudste is in de Japanse taal. Een betoverend boek, begrijp ik van Nooteboom, voor op het lijstje.

The Naval Base by Rob Hornstra

The book The Naval Base (De Marinebasis in Dutch) is a photobook that is part of a project and exhibition by Rob Hornstra. The book’s subject is Den Helder, the city in the north-west of the Netherlands that has hosted the largest Dutch naval base since 1947.   

The city’s economy and social structures became dependent on the naval base. Still, in the past decades, defense budget cuts and technical development in defense have led to a sharp decrease in defense-related jobs in the small city of Den Helder.

The book documents the city in 2021. The pictures by Rob Hornstra and the accompanying texts by Arnold van Bruggen breathe the atmosphere of a declining town and a city with an aging population. The deadpan and unadorned pictures of the city and its inhabitants are tastefully combined with the texts. There is also some positive news: the city’s fresh air is unique, and the opportunities for tourism are largely unexplored.

Joachim Schmid – Photoworks 1982-2007

Photoworks is an overview of the work of Joachim Schmid up to 2007. The book combines in depth essays on Schmid’s works with extensive illustrations of his work.

The majority of Schmid’s work is based on collections of found mostly quite vernacular imagery, which he orders in a way that makes you look different at the world.

The same menu, some slight variation on potatoes and beef

I’m reading The Nix by Nathan Hill. I put it aside a while ago because I couldn’t get through it, but now I’m binge-reading it. Things can change.

What you get, in other words, is choice. Or, rather, the illusion of choice, she said, all these restaurants offering substantially the same menu, some slight variation on potatoes and beef.