Boring Photographs

One of the funniest photography-related books I've come across in the past few years is a very small, brown, plain-looking volume from Phaidon. It's called "Boring Postcards." Somehow, I think the German title, "Langweilige Postkarten" is even more evocative. It's a collection of meticulously grouped, carefully reproduced... boring postcards. Yet the parade of gas stations, diners, shopping malls, motorways, airports, and other extremely un-photogenic subjects often photographed without even a modicum of ambition, when presented as a collection, is incredibly funny.

A boring photograph of Boring Postcards. How's that for conceptual art? The captions read "The Virginian Restaurant, Williamsburg, Virginia," and "The famous Blue Grill on U.S. 40, St. Elmo, Ill." (No, it isn't a copyright violation; it's a "derivative work." Besides which, the copyright on the postcards has expired, and the book itself doesn't even have a copyright notice.)

However, most boring photographs wouldn't make much of a book, even if put together like this. They're simply too boring. So boring that even a heavy coating of ironic publishing work wouldn't give enough context to make them interesting.

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