Point It
Dieter Graf
Point It is perhaps the best-selling photobook of all time. Since its publication in 1992 2,5 million copies have been sold and the book is in its 21st edition. It is also one of the cheapest photobooks in my collection.
One of the goals of photography is to capture the world around us. And that is exactly what Point It aims for. Point It is a list of things you need or can encounter during a trip. With photographs of 1.300 items ranging from foodstuffs to toiletries to vehicles to household goods. The simple idea is that if you are in some remote corner of the world where you can not communicate, you use Point It. You open this little, passport-sized, book and point to the photograph of the requested item. Perhaps simple, but nevertheless brilliant.
The book is self-published by Dieter Graf. A German publisher, who in addition to Point It also has published and written hiking guides for a number of Greek Islands. All under the imprint Graf Editions,
The book consists either of single objects arranged as gridded pages or clusters of objects arranged as complex still lifes. It makes the desing so artful that in some instances becomes difficult to make out what the objects are, never mind point them out. So one might question the absolute usefullness of Point It. Nevertheless, it is a delightful and amusing book.
Point It
Photographer: Dieter Graf
Publisher: Graf Editions
Originally published in 1992
Paperback, 9 x 13 cm, 72 pages
Mentioned in The Photobook: A History, Volume 2. Edited by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger