More Information
Author Chris Shaw
Pages 64
Signed No
ISBN 1931885508
Publisher Twin Palms Publishers
Publishing date 2006
Publishing place Santa Fe, New Mexico, US
Language English
Edition First edition
Binding Hardcover without dustjacket (as issued)
Book condition Collectible; Very Good
Condition description Book is like new, just some superficial scratches/shelfwear on the back.
Dimensions (cm hxb) 42 x 30,5
Number published 2000
(publishers text) Chris Shaw spent ten years working in London hotels, all the while using his camera to both document the hotels’ unexpected human spectacles and keep himself awake through the long hours of his shift. Whether capturing prostitutes waiting between “Johns,” weary hotel staff, the inebriated and profligate guests, or the details of the hotels’ faded grandeur, Shaw’s images transcend the physical boundaries of a place, and instead capture a state of mind in which few people would choose to stay more than a night. The thing I like most about the pictures is the large element of what I call the “chance meeting,” the times I was so tired I lost the artifice and techniques of photography. I just took photographs to keep me awake. It became artless. The people I photographed, these episodes in the social fantastic would heighten and illuminate my whole night, often making a difficult job and my twelve-hour shift bearable. The sum of the book is really a hotel of my own imagination constructed from several hotels I have worked in and some I’ve stayed in as a paying guest. In reality these hotels bear little or no resemblance to my actual pictures. It just depends on how you look at things. In my experience heaven and hell are places right here on earth, and you can stay in either one.

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Life as a Night Porter

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Photographed in several hotels Chis Shaw has worked or stayed in. 64 Duotone Plates
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