The day came and Romanek's book arrived in the mail. The packaging was even impressive, with odd dimensions and a rough green fabric to coat the book's covers. On the front page was the unforgettable still of Madonna in her "Bedtime Stories" video.

As I read through the fascinating foreword by Mark Alice Durant, I turned the page and was greeted by a still from David Bowie's "Jump, They Say". I then realized the burden of a book that seemed too good to be true.

The title of the book doesn't kid when it says "Music Video Stills". The pictures are slightly blurred from actually being captured off a screen, so as that the pixels of the picture are thick and in horizontal lines. On most occasions, this minor defect doesn't affect the reader's viewing pleasure, but it is noticeable.

In any case, the book remains a fine collection, sporting key snapshots from all of Romanek's well-known and unknown videos. Highlights of the book include Nine Inch Nails' "Closer", Michael Jackson's "Scream", Nine Inch Nails' "The Perfect Drug", Madonna's "Bedtime Story", and Janet Jackson's "Got 'Til It's Gone". Others covered are videos by Lenny Kravitz, G. Love & Special Sauce, David Bowie, En Vogue, Keith Richards, and Iggy Pop.

Fans of music videos, cinematography, or Romanek's work in general will love this book and it is a recommended buy if you can stand picture quality that isn't 100% crystal clear. The book is also recommended for fans of realist (a la Andreas Gursky) and portrait photography.

Despite the blur, the book is a showcase of a cinematogrphical mastermind's diverse work and I'm proud to place it on my bookshelf.

8 of 14 found the following review helpful:


somebody should've known better.  Mar 12, 2002 By B. Erickson "boycorrupted"
i'll just repeat everything everybody else already said for emphasis. cuz this is a poor quality collection, and it didn't have to be. i don't know whose stupid idea it was to shoot photos of monitors showing the videos rather than just printing from the negatives, maybe romanek himself thought it would somehow be conceptually "neat" to photograph his work as it plays across the screen, but of course the quality is reprehensible. it's like when you were 8 and you tried to dub a tape by sitting one tape deck next to another.

it's no suprise that romanek has werked with madonna several times, since they are both consummate rip-off artists - i mean "appropriators." if you like his videos, check out the brothers quay to see where he stole all his ideas. not that i think that invalidates his werk...well ok it does a little, but it's still fun to look at. "closer" is one of my all-time favorite guilty pleasures. BUT...it takes looking at a bunch of horribly digitized stills to understand how important it is to see his werk in motion as it was conceived and executed. it would be cool if they'd release a dvd collection of his videos - and then you could freeze-frame and get out your canon and make your own "video music stills." seriously. in that case you'd also be able to select your own favorite stills, cuz another problem i have with this book is that it leaves out some of the most interesting shots from the videos while including a lot of redundant filler.

it looks like they were prepared to spend a decent amount of money to produce a quality coffee table book, but the harebrained "video still" idea blows the whole thing. and sadly, i doubt whether you'll ever be able to purchase that mark romanek music video dvd, cuz the record labels have too much money to make hawking those videos in individual compilations.