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Reviews with images
Buy the 87 Pantheon edition
Those here who dismiss the image quality of this book are right, though I wonder if some of the limitation's of Brassai's time also color their disappointment. Brassai's night images will never be as sharp or detailed as modern night photography. But at their best his images are wonderfully atmospheric and rich. And how well that comes off depends on the printing qualities shown on each page. This Bullfinch release is very disappointing compared to the Pantheon's 1987 edition which presents almost the exact same layout and content.A note in this book states that the images are printed in heliogravure. The exact same language is shown in the 1987 Pantheon edition. We might expect that the images would look the same, but they don't. All Bullfinch's images have been screened, which makes them look blotchy, lowers contrast, and loses detail. The screens are very fine, so you won't see it without a loop or high-quality scan. But enlarging these images helps explain why the images look flat. Pantheon's book is quite beautiful, and well worth acquiring in any condition.I have both of the books I mention here. Actually two of the Pantheon- one is a the cheapest copy I could find on Amazon so I could cut it up and scan it on an Epson V750. I don't mind ripping up my Bullfinch book at all.An especially odd thing about the Bullfinch release is that every single image in the book has been cropped in slightly compared to Pantheon, and then enlarged so that it covers the same space on the page. If I were a betting man, I'd guess the talk of using Brassai's plates is false- these look like scans from a previous printing.The two images below show scans from Pantheon and Bullfinch from plate 4, "Tuileries Gardens". They were scanned seconds after one another and identically processed. Amazon seems to want to show them at reduced size, but in Chrome, if you click once on the image and then right-click on the bigger image and choose "Open image in new tab" you will see a large image that shows 600 ppi crops from two locations on this plate. The right section shows the bottoom edge of the image area and the amount the Bullfinch crops each image.I'm not sure that this review does a good job advocating for the positive qualities of the Pantheon release. Just because the printing process is different, are the pictures that much better? Yes, this is one of my favorite photo books. I couldn't imagine this material being presented in much better form than what we see in the Pantheon book.
Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2013
Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2015
Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2017
Those here who dismiss the image quality of this book are right, though I wonder if some of the limitation's of Brassai's time also color their disappointment. Brassai's night images will never be as sharp or detailed as modern night photography. But at their best his images are wonderfully atmospheric and rich. And how well that comes off depends on the printing qualities shown on each page. This Bullfinch release is very disappointing compared to the Pantheon's 1987 edition which presents almost the exact same layout and content.
A note in this book states that the images are printed in heliogravure. The exact same language is shown in the 1987 Pantheon edition. We might expect that the images would look the same, but they don't. All Bullfinch's images have been screened, which makes them look blotchy, lowers contrast, and loses detail. The screens are very fine, so you won't see it without a loop or high-quality scan. But enlarging these images helps explain why the images look flat. Pantheon's book is quite beautiful, and well worth acquiring in any condition.
I have both of the books I mention here. Actually two of the Pantheon- one is a the cheapest copy I could find on Amazon so I could cut it up and scan it on an Epson V750. I don't mind ripping up my Bullfinch book at all.
An especially odd thing about the Bullfinch release is that every single image in the book has been cropped in slightly compared to Pantheon, and then enlarged so that it covers the same space on the page. If I were a betting man, I'd guess the talk of using Brassai's plates is false- these look like scans from a previous printing.
The two images below show scans from Pantheon and Bullfinch from plate 4, "Tuileries Gardens". They were scanned seconds after one another and identically processed. Amazon seems to want to show them at reduced size, but in Chrome, if you click once on the image and then right-click on the bigger image and choose "Open image in new tab" you will see a large image that shows 600 ppi crops from two locations on this plate. The right section shows the bottoom edge of the image area and the amount the Bullfinch crops each image.
I'm not sure that this review does a good job advocating for the positive qualities of the Pantheon release. Just because the printing process is different, are the pictures that much better? Yes, this is one of my favorite photo books. I couldn't imagine this material being presented in much better form than what we see in the Pantheon book.
A note in this book states that the images are printed in heliogravure. The exact same language is shown in the 1987 Pantheon edition. We might expect that the images would look the same, but they don't. All Bullfinch's images have been screened, which makes them look blotchy, lowers contrast, and loses detail. The screens are very fine, so you won't see it without a loop or high-quality scan. But enlarging these images helps explain why the images look flat. Pantheon's book is quite beautiful, and well worth acquiring in any condition.
I have both of the books I mention here. Actually two of the Pantheon- one is a the cheapest copy I could find on Amazon so I could cut it up and scan it on an Epson V750. I don't mind ripping up my Bullfinch book at all.
An especially odd thing about the Bullfinch release is that every single image in the book has been cropped in slightly compared to Pantheon, and then enlarged so that it covers the same space on the page. If I were a betting man, I'd guess the talk of using Brassai's plates is false- these look like scans from a previous printing.
The two images below show scans from Pantheon and Bullfinch from plate 4, "Tuileries Gardens". They were scanned seconds after one another and identically processed. Amazon seems to want to show them at reduced size, but in Chrome, if you click once on the image and then right-click on the bigger image and choose "Open image in new tab" you will see a large image that shows 600 ppi crops from two locations on this plate. The right section shows the bottoom edge of the image area and the amount the Bullfinch crops each image.
I'm not sure that this review does a good job advocating for the positive qualities of the Pantheon release. Just because the printing process is different, are the pictures that much better? Yes, this is one of my favorite photo books. I couldn't imagine this material being presented in much better form than what we see in the Pantheon book.
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Top reviews from other countries
MISS S BURHAN
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Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 7, 2016M., Christine
Lange gesucht, endlich gefunden
Reviewed in Germany on January 28, 2013