Sunshine and Olly

by Jonathan Blaustein

The body has all sorts of wisdom.

It remembers.

(They call it muscle memory for a reason.)

Here I am, and it’s been 15 months since my last book review column.

At that time, it was a job.

Now I’m back, and it’s essentially a hobby, as no one is paying me to do Sunshine and Olly.

It’s a labor of love, because blogging is a creative outlet.

(And given the lack of platforms covering photography, I feel a duty to help out.)

Since you’re reading this, I’m proud to say that you, our audience, represent all parts of the globe.

We’re pulling in readers from North and South America, the UK, Europe, Central, South and Southeast Asia, and even Africa these days.

(Not bad, for a small readership.)

So this is the moment where I welcome you all (from parts far and near,) to this, my first book review column at Sunshine and Olly.

And wouldn’t you know it, but the photo-book gods were kind.

Let’s get to it.

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Because I’d promised a Friday photo column, (but hadn’t set anything up this week,) I remembered Jessie had tucked away some late 2022/ early 2023 submissions in a stack in the back of the pantry.

I reached over the back-up toilet paper, and pulled out the first package I could get my hands on.

Wouldn’t you know it, but I found the OG submission that came in, after I’d transitioned to the new blog.

It was from Erin Krall, in Austin, and I really didn’t know anything beyond that.

Open up the packaging, and the book was wrapped in some cool, coffee sack burlap, which said Guatemala.

A lovely detail to set the experience.

Inside, the opening quote page was a bit confusing, if I’m being honest, and I could have lived without it.

Mostly because Erin’s writing throughout is terrific, and she quotes from Joan Didion, whose book, “A Book of Common Prayer” inspired this one, called “Live from Boca Grande.”

Erin’s opening text tells us the following images are “little poems,” and “like scraps of paper- a reporter’s notes from a decade on the Caribbean desk.”

End-book essays take us to Austin, Miami, and Sonora, Mexico.

So it’s a jaunt through nameless ports of call, essentially.

And a lovely one at that.

Frankly, this was the picture perfect book to get me interested in reviewing again.

It’s about the joy of seeing.

Two images, one with a blue cloth blocking part of a fishmonger, and the other, with various shades and textures of gold, on a car, and a tarp, stopped me in my tracks.

All the photographs are good, or very good, and some are just great.

The touch of a talented editor is evident too, (props to Cengiz Yar,) because the repeating motifs are there, and appreciated.

Shoes on the ground, certain angles coming back, exquisite color combinations, and the variation of verticals and horizontals.

All in all, this book, which Erin Krall self-published as Palomino Journal, is a breath of fresh, moist, tropical air.

She writes that the Tropics are known for Hurricanes, and tragedy, but this book focuses on joy.

As someone who’s lived in the severe, raw, high desert of the American West for 19 years straight, I could do with a little humidity.

Thanks, Erin!

Kudos to you and your team.

As to the rest of you… catch you next week.