Ringo Starr

I love the Beatles. And I love most of what the four of them have done separately in the fifty years (!) since they parted ways.

But this? This is "scraping the bottom of the barrel" material. There's the odd interesting photograph here, but the stories are mostly banal, just like the majority of the photos. Photos, I might add, that are mostly quick, tossed off phone camera shots.

Yes, the book dresses them up nicely, and gets all arty by putting the same photo multiple times on a single show more page, or sometimes across a spread (and in some cases, just repeating the damn photo later on in the book). But really, this is putting lipstick on a very average looking pig.

I loved Ringo's first book, but this one is a total waste of money. show less

This is like looking at an album of photographs with a friend: they might be out of focus or the place has been forgotten, but they all show the life of a guy who is happy to look back at his life. Because of his nature Ringo was always my favourite Beatle. His sunny temperament was obvious in this collection. Reading over his shoulder, so to speak, was a pleasure.

Photograph by Ringo Starr is a large coffee table sized book that is chock full of the pictures of Ringo Starr’s life. Many of these pictures are from his private collection and many were taken by Ringo himself. Yes, there are lots of pictures from his time with the Beatles, but he also has pictures from his childhood and from his time after being a member of that famous group . He accompanies the photographs with short paragraphs about what was happening at the time or giving some show more background as to how that particular picture came about.

This book that I borrowed from the library was not the limited edition that was first published that was more interactive, but rather the later edition released to the general public. I grew up to the Beatles music so I was interested to see this collection and I enjoyed the unguarded pictures of them appearing relaxed and at ease with each other. I also found the pictures of his early years and the time he spent playing for other bands before becoming one of the Fab Four interesting. I would have liked there to have been a little more attention spent to his later years, but perhaps he is so used to guarding his privacy that this was kept pretty limited.

Photograph doesn’t break any new ground regarding Ringo or the Beatles, but it was fun to feel like I was hanging out with one of my idols for a short time. show less

A quick read featuring some of the many postcards that John, Paul, and George sent Ringo over the years. Each two-page spread shows the front and back of the card and comments from Ringo explaining what they were doing at the time the postcard was sent. I found it remarkable that the Royal Mail was able to get the cards to the right place, especially without postcodes and with some eccentric spellings in Ringo’s address.

Overall this is a 3/5 because I preferred Ringo’s collection of show more photographs; it was longer and had more interesting commentary. But this is a pleasant diversion. show less