Sometimes you have to call out the bollocks, and this book is entirely full of bollocks. I'll also walk through some far more meaningful examples of publishing, and why books on birds are so very very important and should be taken more seriously by a publisher.

00:00 Intro 01:46 The Gift 03:49 Why Does This Exist? 05:25 All Kinds of Trash 07:05 Better Books 09:03 Little Book of Birds 11:02 My Other Book 13:01 Who Took The Photo

This video was triggered by a gift from someone that really opened my eyes to how the world of publishing risks descending into pointless obscurity. In my entire lifetime I cannot recall a book that stands out like this one does, for being utterly bereft of any conceptual merit or worthwhile content. This is a book that simply should not exist.

A ten year old child could offer more meaningful curation and focus than demonstrated by this book. A child might even be cognisant enough to credit the photographers or offer an attempt at structure. It is as if someone grabbed a random selection of Instagram posts on the hashtag #birbs and stuffed them into a mincer. The only real effort on display is the enthusiastic application of Photoshop to etch out backgrounds, a design decision with underlines the misguided focus on style over substance.

As someone who spends so much of my time curating photography this book represents a standard of failure that I will eagerly share with future workshop participants. This book will be my example of what happens when someone with the means publishes a book without meaning.

#BirdPhotography #PhotographicBooks #Photography #Publishing #Birds #EwenTube

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