Here is a beautiful new photography book from
National Geographic I recently received to review. It is Live, Laugh,
Celebrate, a visual celebration of the human spirit, by Ferdinand Protzman. The
book documents a vibrant collection of celebrations from around the world that
speaks kindly about our human nature. We can certainly use this perspective
today.
The book notes that like love, the urge to
celebrate is common to every culture. This is a great photo opportunity
as the description reads, “Whether it's a festival, a parade, a sporting event,
a ceremony, public or private, large or small, formal or informal...the
pageantry, excitement, action and emotion of celebrations are a riveting
subject.“ This pleasing, very global, collection of photographs is accompanied
by essays. It includes some never before published images and others from
National Geographic's archive.
The book begins with the premise that. “t any
given moment, someone somewhere in the world is celebrating something.” This is
a nice idea to consider. Chapter One covers the cycles of life. There is a warm
shot of an older sister holding her brother’s face on his first birthday I
remember how my uncle set up the picture of me and my first birthday cake. He
placed the cake on one side of the blanket and me on the other. Then he got his
camera to record what he knew would happen as I crawled toward the cake to
proceed to embed my face in the cake. I did not have an older sister to deter
me from this act.
There are both color pictures and black and
white. In the first chapter I tend to like the B&W ones best as you focus
more on the people, at least I do. However, a number of the color ones make
excellent use of color as in some of the shots of food and the pink Caddy with
the very long tail fins transporting a wedding couple.
Chapter
Two looks around the world to show us celebrations that are more regional than
life cycle oriented. I loved the carnival in Venice, an event I have always wanted
to attend. The over the top nature of the carnival in Rio is well covered. A
Grateful Dead concert is included, as well as Kenya’s celebration of Obama’s
victory. There is a great photo of Mardi Gras in my home town, New Orleans.
Chapter
Three moves on to parties. I loved Sam Abell’s photo of musicians playing at
the Japanese Emperor’s garden party. I spoke with Sam a while back (see Sam Abell Talks about Photography and Life) and have written about his work before (see The Life of a Photographer – Sam Abell). This photo shows how Sam is very concerned with the
framing of a shot. The last picture is a foam party in Ibiza Spain with dozens
of people playing in the suds.
This
book certainly shows the diversity of human celebrations and the common joy they
can evoke. It will make an excellent holiday gift and is available on their
site and in stores.
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