It's very odd (to me, at least) that the Guardian's Tim Adams should have reviewed Geoff Dyer's new book about photography, See/Saw: Looking At Photographs, without once mentioning his previous one, The Ongoing Moment - especially as it seems to be very much in the same vein.
Adams notes how Dyer shares with John Berger an insistence on "letting the evidence of his eyes have precedence over theory" and how his personal perspectives, often reached via circuitous routes, invariably prove enlightening: "Dyer lets you eavesdrop as he feels his way toward truths, and convinces you with quiet moments of surprise when he arrives at them." That much could also be said of The Ongoing Moment.
What's more, Adams' observation that "Dyer has achieved that rare elevation as an essayist that allows him to demand all his published thoughts be preserved between hard covers" chimes with my own, reviewing The Ongoing Moment, that he's a rare example of a generalist writer capable of making invaluable contributions to a range of specialist fields - photography being just one.
Anyway, See/Saw certainly sounds worthy of investigation.
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