The Day-to-Day Life of Albert Hastings, published by Princeton Architectural Press, is a quiet charmer of a book.

The book is photographic essay Albert Hastings, an eighty-five year-old man in Wales; a documentary of his rituals and routines, as recorded by his neighbour, photographer KayLynn Deveney. There is a hand-written caption under each photo, saying things like “Laundry airing” and “Listening to my radio”.

A few of us here at Raincoast adored the book when we first saw some of the photographs, but truth be told, it is a little obscure—though, in my opinion, that is definitely part of its charm. So I was surprised—and very delighted—to see that Oprah likes it, too. Maybe it’s not so obscure after all.

This review appears in the September issue of Oprah’s O Magazine:

“You’ll find nothing less, and profoundly more in The Day-to-Day Life of Albert Hastings (Princeton Architectural Press), photographer KayLynn Deveney’s quietly moving late-life portrait.  Hastings’s handwritten captions create a revealing double perspective.”—O Magazine

Here are a few pages from the book, to give you a taste of what it’s like. Click on the image below to see a larger version.

Sadly, Albert Hastings passed away in February, 2007. He was 91 years old.