A Kind of Rapture

Realised quickly that there are poetries in pictures. Better to gaze longer on one than to turn the page impatiently. No words necessary to the mind, just the "flow" between the faces and your own eyes.

Excellent photos and poems but a bit depressing in the whole.

The first time I viewed Bergman's photographs I was stunned. Blown away. Each subject reaches out from the page, challenging conscience, demanding emotion, indelibly searing the viewer's visual memory.I have owned four copies of A Kind of Rapture and given three away. This purchase is a backup that will go into archival storage. It's an investment beyond monetary worth.

If you're a serious photographer or photography enthusiast, it cannot be not in your library. It should be on your shelf along with "The Americans" of Robert Frank and other photographers' photographers' opus. Toni Morrison's introduction essay prepares the reader perfectly for what's to come.

This book shows photos of homeless or down and out people with a distant gaze. In that distant gaze is not wisdom, but just survival.There can be a confusion between pre-rational and trans-rational, and many confuse the two (look up pre trans fallacy and Ken Wilber for more on this). A baby is pre-rational, and may be rapturous, however, there is no deep wisdom or rationality there. A very present person, one who knows their own mind very well, can be rapturous from a place beyond the rational. That person could have transcended the rational.This book isn't what I hoped it would be. The people shown may have rapture, but it is not combined with multifaceted wisdom.

Ten years ago this month A KIND OF RAPTURE was published. Toni Morrison boldly states in the Introduction that this collection of photographs by Robert Bergman will "forever mark a place in the history of artistic endeavor." You might accept this claim simply as generous enthusiasm--until this astonishing gallery of portraits unfolds before your eyes. Not since the publication of Robert Frank's THE AMERICANS (1958, French edition) has any photographic book searched the soul of America with such unexpected and artistically profound results. Like Robert Frank, Robert Bergman set out by car, traveling across America, capturing unplanned encounters with a simple 35mm camera. Bergman's book, A KIND OF RAPTURE, was published in 1998. Exactly four decades subsequent to THE AMERICANS, the world was given a photobook comparable in vision and originality to Robert Frank's landmark book. Open A KIND OF RAPTURE and you will conclude it was well worth the wait.

A visual teaching on not- self

An exploitative excursion through streets inhabited by the down and out, with possible appeal likely limited to social voyeurs seeking a glimpse into the sorrow of others. If the latter is not your thing, avoid this product, with indulgence in its contents at the risk of an onset of queasiness.

Le texte de Toni Morrison en préface est un modèle de littérature et de pensée de l'autre. Les photographies de Bergman, cadrées sans sophistication, sans affect inutile, nous donnent à voir le spectacle de visages troublants, énigmatiques, parfois au-delà de l'humain, qui portent dans leurs traits, leurs regards, leur pause, le mystère de vies qui nous échappent à jamais mais dont nous voyons, dans les ongles crasseux ou les objets qui pendent au cou, qu'elles nous sont aussi familières dans leurs espoirs (peut-être) que dans leurs épreuves (qui restent insoupçonnées ou inimaginables). Un seul portrait, en pied, masque le visage d'un homme. Sa présence sans possibilité identificatoire nous dit cependant tout le mystère de l'être présent dans son absence. Les couleurs nous renvoient à un art du portrait qui trouve son origine dans la tradition picturale des origines. Un très bel ouvrage qui habite longtemps son lecteur.