EPJ Photographer Portfolio Website Critique

There are some photographer's websites that I like. Such as:

http://www.edwardburtynsky.com/ - Easy to navigate (menus stay on the left) and you see the pictures as you go, so there's no guessing. Very user friendly! And image information is provided.

http://portfolio.joemcnally.com/ - Easy to scroll over links, the menu remains at the bottom. The top right shows which portfolio you're looking at, thumbnail images in a pop-out menu show you your choices.

http://www.uwehmartin.de/ - Menu remains at the top, scrolling over images gives their caption information, bottom right provides a way to scroll through images (although I like being able to pick and choose out of order better), top right provides story info, font is readable

But here's one that I came across that I didn't like, the website for photographer Todd Hido.

You're greeted by these two boxes, with a Neopolitan ice cream color scheme. (Depending on when you load it, the colors rotate between tan or raspberry, or maybe the same color for both.) I'm not particularly fond of Neopolitan ice cream, so the colors don't really put me at ease. But what's really unsettling: where are the pictures? Who is this guy? Whose website is this (the font is so small!)?

So after clicking on the boxes, I decided that maybe a scroll over of the print might yield something, and it does:

But finding them was a pain. Mouse over 'photographs' and nothing, just more choices. Then 'homes at night,' and nothing, more choices. Then I choose 'houses,' which yeilds pictures BUT the image names have to 'load' (not be greyed out) before I can see any of the images. And because the font is so small, there were several times where I was trying to select one thing and it scrolled to something else because I accidentally touched the other words.

So, besides being a pain to maneuver, it also is not tolerant of people without perfect eyesight. Adjusting the font size in the browser had no effect on the words on the screen. And I didn't understand why this photographer would want to be so diminutive about his own information - such as his name or his contact information.

I also didn't like how he included pictures of the front of his monographs, but didn't show you what was inside or give you any additional information. In fact, he didn't supply any type of caption information for any of his images, which bugged me because I'd like to know at least a little bit about what you're thinking - like the pictures of the 'Homes at Night' - why did he undertake this project? What does it mean?

As far as navigation, this mouse-over effect at least removed the need for a back button, so everything is right there and easy to maneuver in that sense. But as a professional website which is supposed to be capturing my interest and aweing me with his skill so that I employ him - it fails miserably.

And finally, in the portrait section, there were many female nudes scattered throughout the choices. I didn't quite get the artistic reason as to why they needed to be nude, when the atmosphere evoked was the same as the clothed models and all the images seemed to be saying is 'hey, look at my chest' rather than 'I am a moody emotional female.' Wow, he got women to pose naked and look sour. Andrew Wyeth had nudes, too, but they seemed to mean something (sitting: Lovers; lying: Day Dream).