Book of the Year: ‘Riley & His Story’ by Monica Haller

Soon after posting my Top 10 list, I learned about Monica Haller’s book, Riley and his story. Me and my outrage. You and us.’ Published in November by Onestar press/Fälth & Hässler, the book consists of hundreds of photographs by Riley Sharbonno, an army nurse who served at Abu Ghraib prison from 2004-2005. But it’s Monica Haller’s stunning methodology for organizing these images that makes this the book of the year.

→With only a thousand copies in print (and most of them in Europe), I’d recommend purchasing this pronto before it sells out.

Since Monica happens to live in Minnesota, I quickly contacted her. She graciously agreed to an impromptu interview in my bunker library.

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/8415834 w=600&h=452]

To see this video a little bit larger, go to the LBM A/V page.
For more information about Riley and His Story, go here.


5 Replies to “Book of the Year: ‘Riley & His Story’ by Monica Haller”

  1. alec

    MORE MORE please of ‘from the alec library’…..

    though u sure aint brian lamb or david frost, i love the bunker couch/bed…

    and MOST IMPORTANTLY

    the work you’re bringing…

    will hunt down the book next week :)))

    cheers
    bob

    p.s. when my book is published, i will gladly volunteer for the bunker bed/interview :)))

    cheers ;)))

  2. The posturing of the book’s text leaves me chagrined. The metaphor invoked, of artistic power, the book as deployment, the artist’s intervention substituting for military commandment, is a lovely fantasy, not very unlike the need to invent terrorists who hate our freedoms. It’s so pretty to think that the fine arts could equal the power of the martial arts. But I’m left feeling that Riley’s service is somewhat forced, inducted, that the commander in chief is overreaching, that her in-expressiveness is, dare I say it, Bush-like, that the whole exercise is a mirror, a repetition of the initial acting out, of a childish belief in the power of one’s own fairy tales.

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