Decorous Image

DARTMOUTH: A VISUAL REMEMBRANCE Photography by George A. Robinson Foremost, 1982. 144 pp. $35.00

This is certainly a book to buy, to keep, and to give to anyone for whom a visual remembrance of Dartmouth (or even of part of Dartmouth) is valuable. All but a small handful of the photographs are lovely to look at and many of them are exceptionally beautiful; the printing is firstrate; and the introduction by David Bradley '38 is itself almost worth the price of admission. Ron Boss '61 deserves our thanks for having conceived the idea of such a book and for giving it the financial underpinning without which it would never have left the ground.

It is only right that one should elaborate a little on the most important of the ingredients which give the book its quality the eye of the photographer. For George Robinson's skill in seeing some of the best scenes from some of the best angles; for his ability to capture some quintessential Dartmouth moments; for the sheer endurance involved in ten months of getting to the College and its outposts and taking more than ten thousand photographs, in all weathers, covering almost every hour of the day; for all of this we are in his debt. His contribution to this book is an authentic achievement.

The book is more, though, than a collection of pretty pictures. It is an answer to Burns's prayer about having the chance to see ourselves as others see us. The editor and publisher someone who has never been to Hanover tells us through the selection of 126 photographs from 10,000-plus what he thinks Dartmouth is. Or perhaps, more accurately, what he thinks Dartmouth people think Dartmouth is. It is an image inescapable word which provides some food for thought.

It would not be appropriate to get into anything heavy here, but one cannot but be intrigued by some of the things one takes in. (And one cannot help wondering, along the way, how this book will compare, in terms of choice of subject matter, with others which are due to appear dealing with other institutions.) For example, should one make anything of the fact that more than a quarter of the photographs do not contain any people, and that almost half of the remainder have only one person in them working or playing alone? Is it fair to draw attention to the fact that only one current member of the faculty of arts and sciences is to be found anywhere, and that even he is upstaged by his office? And am I alone in thinking that one is presented with a strangely muted Dartmouth, a little of the juice squeezed out of it? All very homogeneous, very neat, very decorous and relaxed, but altogether more placid than the place we know and love?

To say, though, that while the book tells the truth about today's College it does not tell the whole truth is probably to reveal how unreasonable a man I am always wanting the impossible. I guess that it's because the book is so very good that one longs for it to be even better. Rather than regretting what isn't there I ought to be taking pleasure in what is. And that's easy!