Picture This: A Visual Diary, by Tipper Gore (HC, 1906, $2)
Tipper Gore's photos are good! A lot of celebrities take photos these days, and a good many of them are nothing special. Tipper, though, trained under the photo editor of the Tennessean, Jack Corn. Her official job for the Tennessean ended when her husband entered politics, but she continued to photograph, both her family and the VIPs she met as the wife of the Vice President. More importantly she continued to take photos of people in crisis, both the refugees from Rwanda, as well as the homeless in D.C. The mixture is jarring. (Page 70 shows the Gore's bedroom in the "guest palace" in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, while page 81 is a view of a refugee camp in Zaire.) Then there are the photos of normal people, in normal situations. There are even a couple of photos of her then-younger husband which show him, if I may so, looking rather sexy.
I didn't expect to get much from a book I assumed was published only for political reasons, but man, was I wrong. Some of Tipper Gore's photos are to be enjoyed, and some to be pondered. Some even left me with a sense of wonder. The text that accompanies the photos gave me a sense of who Tipper really is, a rather normal person thrust into a very abnormal life. (I loved the photo of her husband coming home from the office in a helicopter. On the other hand, the Gores prefer to ride in a regular cars, or a minivan, not a limo.)
The thought did flit through my mind of how close she came to being our country's first lady. Most people have forgotten that Gore won the popular vote. Whether Gore's winning the Presidency would have been good for the country... Hey, I am not even going to think of going there! Look for this book on the new non-fiction table, avail. 3/2. (photo.)
