Book DescriptionPhotographer Bill Burke has taken annual trips to Indochina ever since he first traveled to Asia in 1982. Although he usually photographed the people, Burke became aware of how the architecture absorbed as much as reflected the region's history. Transfixed by buildings like the municipal offices built by the French in the 1860s, the vaulted railroad stations and post offices of the 1930s, and the art-deco fantasy cinemas of the 1960s, Burke saw the region as an architectural museum, rotting in the humidity and untouched by economic ambition, and began to trace the cultural changes in the area through its architecture. In Autrefois, Maison Privee - the title means 'once a private house,' and refers to prevalent reappropriation of once private houses for municipal and government uses - Burke captures the dramatic history of the area, from the influence of French colonialism through the rise of communism and the devastating effects of the Vietnam War, to the repopulation of Cambodia after the fall of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rough and the opening of the area to capitalism. Burke's first entree into Indochina occurred during the period of Soviet control, a period of recovery that allowed for the the current explosion of capitalism, which has already begun to devaste an architectural heritage that was well preserved in the deep freez of socialism. What the B-52s and tank didn't destroy during the decades of war, developers from neighboring countries are busily replacing
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Some Outstanding Photography.
I have had only limited contact with B.H. Burkes's photography, but I must say that I am terribly impressed with this work. The images not only have interesting content, but they literally glow. I also found the inclusion of hand written descriptions quite helpful and gives this book a mixed media-like look. When you factor in the huge changes that this region is undergoing and the fact that I suspect that much of what is pictured in this book is either gone or horribly transformed (the Lux Parfumerie ... Read More
Rating: - The Best Photo Book I've seen in years!
Wow! A photographer friend called me up from New York City on a Saturday night to tell me about this book. He said it was so good it made him "want to be a photographer again." After he rang off I went on-line and ordered a copy from Amazon. A week later I got it and my spirit was renewed, too.
There's no mistaking this for anything but a Bill Burke book. The hand written captions on the photos, the unique design that serves to enhance the photos, not some designer's ego and the immediacy ... Read More
