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Books : Boring Postcards USAIn association with Amazon.comby: Martin Parr  
List Price: $19.95 Price: $15.11 You Save: $4.84 (24%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Dewey Decimal Number: 741 EAN: 9780714840000 ISBN: 0714840009 Label: Phaidon Press Manufacturer: Phaidon Press Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 176 Publication Date: October 18, 2000 Publisher: Phaidon Press Studio: Phaidon Press Sales Rank: 1258781 Related Items:
Editorial Review: Product Description: In the original "Boring Postcards", Magnum photographer and postcard enthusiast, Martin Parr, brought together the dullest postcards of 50s, 60s and 70s Britain. Here he turns his attention to the States with 160 of the dullest postcards from the land of opportunity. To qualify, a postcard's composition, content or characters had to be arguably "boring" or absent of interest. The book provides not only amusement, but a commentary on how America has changed, and a celebration of those places that have been forgotten by conventional history. Amazon.com Review: You know those old postcards that show the local meatpacking factory in all its cinder-block glory or the sickening color scheme of a cheap '70s motel room? Well, here they are. Beginning with panoramas of highways in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and other U.S. states, Boring Postcards segues to truck stops, restaurants, motor inns, malls, airports, military bases, factories, tools, and automobiles. Every image is certifiably boring, whether by dint of a photographer's ineptitude (dead-on views taken from too far away) or the sorry state of corporate architecture and interior design. And yet, as earnest advertisements for the American Way of Life, they all radiate a sunny faith in the uniqueness and desirability of whatever they portray. There's not a word of commentary in this book, but that part is up to you. Certain things begin to stand out as you flip through the pages. Like the always blue skies. (Positive thinking!) Or the potentially interesting details that are uniformly obliterated, thanks to those polite middle-distance views and the muddy qualities of cheap lithography. There's a weird tension between the blandly generic ("Fine Food" reads the only visible sign atop a low-slung white building) and the proudly local (according to the postcard caption, this is "The famous Blue Grill on U.S. 40, St. Elmo, Ill."). In its silently subversive way, Boring Postcards proposes that we look more closely at this hallowed form of marketing to see what it tells us about the values and standards of mainstream American culture. --Cathy Curtis Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Not postcards to be mailed. As a book it's......boringFirst a word of clarification. These are not postcards to be mailed. I didn't read the description clearly. This was only my fault, but someone else out there might make the same mistake. Second, the publisher's description and viewers' comments are correct: These are boring, charmless, insipid images, that might tell us a lot about who we think we are -- perhaps of how proud small-town America was of its new airports, bus terminals and banks after the war. But I thought that not including ... Read More Rating:  - Never a dull moment...I have owned this book for several years. Once in a while, I break it out if I yearn for something nostalgic or a break from the present-day pace. The sometimes placid and unassuming images cause the reader to consider a simpler time. It never fails to entertain. Yes, it has humorous images, some staged--yet others seem to be a snapshot of everyday life. The postcards depicting tacky motel room interiors are fun. Any reader could imagine a nice restful escape in these quarters. If anything, this ... Read More Rating:  - Maybe a little too boringI bought this gift as a "funny" Christmas present. Most of the pictures don't even look like they were postcards (just pictures) ... nor can you tell when / where they are from... and most of them are just pictures of interstates... the commentary under each of the picture is sort of random too... just not what I thought it would be... Rating:  - Boring is right! I read reviews before I purchased this book, and followed the advice of the positive ones. I actually sent this book back the day after I received it. Thank goodness for free return shipping. BORING BORING BORING Nothing fun about this book at all. Rating: - Boring? Not!This is an awesome book, made up entirely of old postcards with pictures of highways, restaurants, airports, and other prosaic places. The postcards aren't like the ones you see today, photographs of beautiful places. They look like someone snapped a picture of the highway or restaurant, without even bothering to pick a scenic spot. Only, many of them have captions describing the pictures as 'beautiful' or 'scenic.' That only makes it funnier. On the one hand, I applaud the ... Read More Browse for similar items by category:
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