Monday, October 13, 2014

photobooks, 1950 and 1960

The eBook store at Amazon included these sets of 100 images in book 1 (Korea 1960s Book 1: 100 Color Photographs) and book 2 (Korea 1950s Book 2: 100 Photographs) by the editor, Heedal Kim.

http://www.amazon.com/Korea-1960s-Book-Color-Photographs-ebook/dp/B00NYB4AT4/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1412854815&sr=1-1
Korea 1960s Book 1: 100 Color Photographs - Kindle edition by Heedal Kim. Arts & Photography Ki...


http://www.amazon.com/Korea-1950s-Book-100-Photographs-ebook/dp/B00NMOML8U/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1412854815&sr=1-3
Korea 1950s Book 2: 100 Photographs [Kindle Edition] - Heedal Kim (Editor)

Since the images are color, to buy the eBook (priced at $0.00 but treated as a transaction nevertheless by Amazon for statistical purposes) you will need to view in the free "cloud reader" (http://read.amazon.com) or else use a tablet. The original eBook reading devices ('kindle') is monochrome and therefore misses much of the value of the work.

The image quality varies widely, as does the setting (for the 1960s there are rural and urban, aerial and streetview, port and inland locations). What is missing is text to identify, caption or otherwise provide context. But an enterprising e-list reader could usefully create a companion set of commentary no doubt.

At the very least the close-up views of life in the 1950s and also then the 1960s is eye-opening for those of us younger than 55 or 60 years old.