Author Description

The simplest way of judging the true value of a photograph is to take it out of its context. Cut a photo out of a newspaper, put it in a frame, and hang it on the wall. The vast majority will fail the test. But cut out a photograph from a wholesale butcher's brochure, one of those packaging shots of an aluminum tray full to the edges with pink chicken breasts, hang it over your bed, and a year later you still won't have gotten enough of it. For years, the editors of "Useful Photography" had drawers in their desks where they quietly collected such photographs. Now their private collections form the basis for this new Dutch magazine, in tribute to those anonymous photographers who in their out-of-the-way studios produce such unintentional beauty.