Customer Reviews

Aquarium

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Diane Cook and Len Jenshel are nothing short of the Batman and Robin of photography. The question is who is who? and the result is always a surprise. There is always a sense of healthy competition between the two in their work, Diane in B/W and Len in Color. The subject matter of 'Aquariums' like their previous book "Hots Spots" is rather ordinary or simply expected. Jenshel and Cook take on those cliched subjects that are written off as either too loaded or too easy and try to throw out the obvious such as the lack of red lava in Hot Spots and deal with the unobvious surrounding the obvious . Though indoors, "Aquariums" is still Landscape photography per se. The land and sea nicely placed in boxes sealed off for us too see. We are shown gorgeous images that we expect to see reminding us where we are and then others so foreign in context that we have to take a second look. Perhaps one of the greatest statements this book makes is the fact that these aquariums from U.S. to Japan look as though they could be the same place. This is what happens when we get our hands on nature.
With that said they choose to withhold personal bias and everything is shown to be so incredibly beautiful. another great edition to the Jenshel/Cook family.

Readers glancing at titles would of course believe a book simply titled Aquarium would be another primer on maintaining aquatic life in a glass tank: think again. Diane Cook and Len Jenshel are photographers with a fascination for displays of aquatic life: their visual celebration Aquarium took over three years to complete, translated their landscape photography skills to the water world, and involved travel to eight countries to explore many different aquarium environments, making Aquarium's visual display more than just a passing snapshot.

I'm a huge fan of public aquariums. The displays are gorgeous, relaxing, and spirit refreshing. The photos in this book are the opposite. They are dreary and depressing. All are poorly lit. About half are in black and white. There are instances where this works-- like the photo of flounders in sand on pg. 63. It makes a nice fossillike texture. But in most cases, removing color just makes everything boring and bleak.

When the photos are in color, the colors are excessively orange. Whether this is a printing error, or the fault of the photographer for not adjusting white balance or using the wrong kind of film, I can't say. (Aquariums are poorly lit and difficult to photograph as it is.) But it makes the photos look like they are very old and showing the color shift of age.

There are a few nice photographs (though poorly colored). The king crabs on sentry on pg. 39, and the jellyfish surrounding a viewer on pg. 87, but there are some really ugly ones, too. On pg. 29, there is a single goldfish in a huge aquarium that looks very much like a sunken shower stall-- tile and all. Some trash lies on the bottom. On pg. 49, the subject appears to be the hand of a viewer. The dull B&W fish in the background aren't immediately noticed.

Anyway, if these photos were my introduction to what it would be like to visit a public aquarium for the first time, I'd never visit.