Mo Palmer

A collection of old photographs of historical sites in the city of Albuquerque, presented side-by-side with photos of the same locations today, sometimes with the old buildings (or remnants thereof) still in place, and sometimes not. Each photo is accompanied by a paragraph-long caption, so while there's not a lot of information on any given page, the book as a whole adds up to a nice little local history lesson. The then-and-now photographs are generally interesting, although sometimes a little depressing, as I often can't help thinking that the older scenes have more character than the modern ones. Though that might just be misplaced nostalgia. I do have one big criticism, though, which is that none of the photos comes with a date attached. The text may explain when the buildings went up and came down, but I'd really like to know when the specific pictures were taken, even if it's only an educated guess at the year.… (mere)