It's a very glossy, medium format hard-cover book of photography. It really does put into perspective some of the people out there that seem to think that a spendy digicam and a PhotoBucket account makes them photographers. They ain't; they are snappers and this bloke is a Photographer.
The book divides up into a few sections; historical and traditional kites to begin with, what looks to me like a Cervia promotional piece, Trépanier's kites flown over Tuscany, back to Cervia for a bit, then closing with a bit of a mixture. I think there's one pic. of duallies.
Despite the lovely pics. it's not an entirely lovable book. The prose is the kind of airy-fairy, "Pseuds' Corner" claptrap that The Artistic Community™ simply insist on spouting much to the annoyance of all right thinking people everywhere. Allow me to treasure you with an excerpt:-
"... to build a kite is to put art beyond the reach of stuffiness and heavy discourse... for a kite is the negation of academic attitudes, of a complacent culture. A kite offers no criticism. It just escapes. It is somewhere else entirely."
Well.... quite.
I do appreciate the index listing the kitemakers. For £11 it's a bargain. Just stick to looking at the pictures and don't read the text of, as the man himself puts it, "this poem in pictures." For some reason it has also been published as "Into the Wind: The Art of the Kite."
Mike.
