Elizabeth Dausch's On The Road

Elizabeth's book immediately caught my attention with the brilliant colors that not only filled the cover page, but that filled each photograph within her book. The richness of each photo that represented the people of Fordham road made me feel that this was a place characterized by a vivacious inhabitants. The journey of her book begins in the morning, which is apparent by the first photograph where the sunlight seems it is about to be blinding. The photos progress into the evening, a time that Elizabeth shows us is still bustling with life. What I enjoyed about this book is that it completely drew me into the places of Fordham road that I would have never imagined to be so detailed and unique. Elizabeth chose to make the photos a medium size, which I found to be beneficial to the work as a whole because if they had been too large one might feel overwhelmed by every detail since there are so many. Elizabeth managed to create a book that gave me a sense of experience, meaning I felt I had been there too, that I had seen these places and people this intimately as well. I was also very impressed with how she framed each photo, because I found it to be sophisticated yet unexpected. Overall this book brought me closer to a culture I had always seen at a distance, a culture that is embedded in its embellishments. At times I felt intimidated, such as the photo where the man is staring don at the camera at a slightly different angle and yet I felt comforted by the people who remained unaware of the camera's presence, who expressed themselves completely on the open street. I very much appreciated what Elizabeth wanted to show us about this particular location.