Splendor — Courtney Allen. Published by Deadbeat Club.
I’ve chosen three books that intrigue but don’t overwhelm me. I craved modesty this year and that need has persisted in these troubled, ego-driven days.
My three favorite 2024 books each manifest a through-line of love, complex as it often is. Courtney Allen’s Splendor is replete with her appreciation for life and with a glorious sense that photography divines significance from the everyday. This is a first book, gentle and unpretentious yet no less compelling. Essayist Kathleen Alcott got it right when she wrote that Courtney’s photographs “[prize] emotion over taxonomy.” Dive into and absorb her book as an antidote to pomposity among photographers and politicians alike.
George Slade is a regular contributor to photo eye’s blog. He lives in Minneapolis.