My wife and I were in San Francisco for a few days, and we spent a half-day in the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). One of the exhibits was a sampling of Joel Sternfeld's photos from his Stranger Passing collection. I was so taken by them that I ordered a copy of Stranger Passing before I returned home. The entire collection grabbed my attention as much as the few I had seen at MOMA. I found myself imagining the lives of the individuals in the collection, their lives leading up to the photo being taken and their lives since the photo. Were their true stories more or less intriguing than the possibilities I found myself considering? ( )

Joel Sternfeld’s Stranger Passing, a collection of sixty photographic portraits, is an art book worth buying. This is high praise for me, since I generally find art books useless. Bought with the best of intentions, they usually wind up unopened and coated with a layer of dust. Besides, they’re over-sized and don’t fit on any of my bookshelves.

To pull off the art book thing you need to have an Architectural Digest type living room with an attractive smoked glass coffee table. It’s not that I might not like a Van Gogh art book, but why get one when I can have a print on a wall where it can truly be appreciated. Heck, I can buy a calendar and marvel at a different masterpiece each month.

Read my full review at the Used Books Blog:
http://usedbooksblog.com/blog/stranger-passing-by-joel-sternfeld/ ( )