Becoming Barbra

This large-format, high-end production volume on the early career of Barbra Streisand covers two sets of photographs by photographer Bill Eppridge. Fans of Streisand may enjoy this book and leave it on their coffee table for display—and may even leaf through it once in a while. For others, Becoming Barbra the book is a yawn, and it’s unlikely the readers will look at it more than once. In spite of the book’s high-end production, the two photographic sessions are not very successful. The photographs are good, though not excellent. Streisand is not posed in these candid photos. The photos tend to be repetitive and uninteresting even though they show Streisand in somewhat different settings and angles. The first set is of Streisand in her New York apartment in 1963, the second is three years later in New York, Paris, and Rome. There was another attempt to assemble these photographs in 1994, but the project failed. In the meantime, Eppridge died, but editors in 2017 revived the project. Brief captions are given referring to page numbers, but unfortunately, on full- and double-page photo spreads the page numbers are missing, making it awkward for readers to match captions to photos.