Angels at the Arno (Imago Mundi Book) [Hardcover]

Eric Lindbloom (Author), Linda Pastan (Introduction), Ben Lifson (Introduction), Italo Zannier (Afterword)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1994 | ISBN-10: 0879239743 | ISBN-13: 978-0879239749 | Edition: 1st

The Florence revealed in Eric Lindbloom's Angels at the Arno is almost startling in its intimacy and quiet solitude. Lindbloom's view of the city rendered exclusively through the plastic lens of a Diana camera, virtually a child's toy brings this venerable city to new life and light. With unabashed subjectivity and an offbeat, oneiric sensiblity, Lindbloom conveys his sense of an unveiled Florence, filled with views striking for the beauty they contain rather than for the history they suggest. This is a city not so much of paintings and trattorie as of mysterious, hidden sculptures, emerging from the ancient architecture like stone made flesh. As Linda Pastan writes in her preface, Lindbloom's Florence is "transformed from a city of blaring car horns and leather vendors, impressive piazzas and forbidding facades to a quiet place of small streets and courtyards, of homespun angels whose wings throw light and shadow over everything, even at high noon."

Editorial Reviews

Review

The Florence revealed in Eric Lindbloom's Angels at the Arno is almost startling in its intimacy and quiet solitude. Lindbloom's view of Florence (rendered exclusively through the plastic lens of a portable Diana camera - virtually a child's toy) brings this venerable city to new life and light. With unabashed subjectivity and an offbeat, oneiric sensibility, Lindbloom conveys his sense of an unveiled Florence, filled with views striking for the mystery they contain rather than for the history they suggest. -- Midwest Book Review --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 84 pages
• Publisher: David R Godine / Imago Mundi Book; 1st edition (July 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879239743
• ISBN-13: 978-0879239749
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 9.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,479,345 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Haunting, December 31, 2000

By 

Charlise Tiee - See all my reviews

This review is from: Angels at the Arno (Imago Mundi Book) (Hardcover)

These 42 black and white photographs, taken between 1979 and 1987 with Diana cameras, are eerily beautiful. The cameras were made in the 1960s, are constructed entirely of plastic, and have a lack of focus at the edge of the image. The photographs taken by Lindbloom are all of Florence, but not a familiar Florence filled with commerce and people, Florence is strangely empty and ghostly in these photographs which feature much sculpture and architecture. The text does not go through the photographs to talk about what they are of and how they were taken, so they might make more sense if the viewer has been to Florence, though all the photographs are titled by location. There is a preface by Linda Pastan, an introduction by Ben Lifson, a "Note on the Photographs" by Eric Lindbloom himself, and a very informative afterword on the Diana camera by Italo Zannier.