30 / CHRONICLESnThe American Flea CircusnFleamarkets by Joel D. Levinson;npostpaid signed editions availablenfrom PM Publications, 8352 KentnDr., El Cerrito, CA 94530; $16.95nsoftcover; $28.95 hardcover (CAnresidents add 6y2% sales tax).nChronicles rarely reviews a book ofnphotographs. For all the technical perfectionnof the camera’s eye and for allnthe ingenuity exercised by photographers,nthe end result hardly ever seemsnto justify the effort. A good paintingn—even a still life—is alive; it almostnbreathes on its own, while a successfulnphotograph so often seems—no matternhow “candid”—dead. Much photographynis an attempt to freeze-drynexperience, and the product is as insipidnas a cup of Brim.nThere are, of course, artists whonhave chosen the camera as their vehicle,nbut even the masters seem tooneager to show off by photographingnfamous men and natural wonders. Wenoften respond more directly to thenamateur snapshots taken by ournfriends. Imagine an intelligent friendnwho set out to explore the familiar andncommonplace world of flea markets.nImagine that friend to have the imaginationnof a poet as well as being annaccomplished photographer, and younwill form some idea of Joel Levinson’snwork in Fleamarkets.nIt is a marvelous book whose imagesnlinger long after the pictures have beennput down. Suburbanites who havencome to believe in the sterility andnsameness of American life have only tonturn the pages to come upon a world asnrich with folly and bad taste—the gritnof real experience—as anything innGeorge Ade or ff.L. Mencken.nFleamarkets is touring museums asna one-man exhibition in Europe andnthe U.S. beginnmg June 30, 1987, atnthe Amerika Haus Berlin; then to LudwignMuseum in Aachen, West Germany;nand opening at the Hunter Museumnin Tennessee on Nov. 15,n1987—Jan. 3. 1988.nnn