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| Cover Source: GoodReads.com |
Author: Keegan Allen
Version Reviewed: Finished, Hardback
Website: www.keeganallenbook.com
*I purchased this book myself.*
GoodReads Summary:
"This book takes you on a photographic voyage through my life so far." -Keegan Allen
Keegan Allen is currently known to fans of the ABC Family hit television series, Pretty Little Liars. He has also appeared in numerous independent films and made his New York Stage debut in the acclaimed MCC production of Small Engine Repair.Review:
Keegan was given his first camera at age nine, and began a lifelong study and pursuit of photography. life.love.beauty is a selection of photographs taken since his childhood. It's a photo journey through the life of an intensely creative soul whose expression finds various forms: in acting, in poems and stories, lyrics and music, but above all in photography. This book's content resonates in the commonality we all share on our own journeys while unveiling an inside look into a world that very few experience.
Organized into three broad groups-life, love, and beauty-the book ranges over the public and private side of Keegan Allen and his world. A child of Hollywood, whose father was also an actor and his mother a painter, Keegan roams freely through that realm, photographing his fellow actors on set, behind the scenes; and recording the amazed, gleeful, sometimes weeping fans that flock to his television and career related events.
Allen also has an eye for the anonymous and the unexpected: the woman gazing dreamily from the balcony of a run-down hotel; the rifle-toting dog walker who seems to have emerged from the 19th century; the performers and denizens of Venice Beach and also the streets of New York, some of them chasing the dream of fame, others having long-since abandoned it; the little boy amid in the crowd in an enormous airport; portraits of lovers kissing on subways, in parks, and on the streets. Traveling from California to New York to Paris and back, as well as through the American west, he finds beauty in both urban and rural places: from large-scale landscapes to glimpses of light transforming what it touches.
Keegan's poems, stories, captions and musings, song lyrics, and journal pages complement the photographs on this journey. He provides an account of growing up just off the Sunset Strip, coming into his own as an actor/artist, dealing with public recognition while maintaining a very private life, falling in and out of love, and acknowledging the influence of his family, friends, fans, and loved ones.
life.love.beauty is an unusually intimate and revealing book: a delight for anyone who values photography, and a gift for the many fans who already follow Keegan's career.
Keegan's real passion comes through in both his photographs and candid story telling in this unique photo-journal.
I can't even begin to explain how much I love this book. It was one of those books that I couldn't even order online. I had to physically purchase it. Every time I went to a store that sold books, I searched it out. But I could never find it. And then I finally got a chance to go to B&N and there it was. Sitting front row in perfect view as I walked in. Keegan Allen is amazingly talented and I really hope he puts together another of these books in the future. Its absolutely beautiful and I couldn't get enough.
I am a lover of photography. Ever since I discovered how to use a camera, I've been taking photos. I remember having backpacks full of rolls of film that needed to be developed. Looking at photos satisfies that hunger in me just as much as taking them and Keegan Allen is a very talented photographer. His photos are beautiful, sometimes odd, and one hundred percent unique.
The photographs in this book aren't just there for viewing pleasure. Like all good photos do, they also told a story. They told the story of Keegan's life. Starting way back to the very first photo he ever took, his childhood, young love, the loss of his father and all the way up to his days on Pretty Little Liars and all of the good things that come with fame. He easily captured the simple life but also shared with us some of the parts of Hollywood that most of us will never get to experience.
I found myself drawn to this book in a special kind of way. I haven't had a book grab me and hold on quite like this one in years. This is one that will forever be on my bookshelf, one that I will come back to many times throughout my life.
I definitely recommend life.love.beauty and I will purchase any book that Keegan Allen comes out with in the future.
Rating: 5 Stars
Also, can I just say how awesome it is that Keegan liked my photo on Instagram?? Fangirling a little bit!
I wish I could get this book signed SO bad!
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