Aquatics [Hardcover]

Henry Horenstein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 2001

Photographer Henry Horenstein has a unique vision of the natural world. His abstract views create intense, sometimes provocative, and yet always revealing portraits of animal life. In praise of Horenstein's work, the Boston Globe has written "His carp and jellyfish are weightless and oddly graceful, suspended in warm and diffuse atmospheres." In these 57 photographs, creatures of the deep sometimes shimmer in dappled sunlight, sometimes appear as ghostly forms half-hidden by murky waters, and other times boldly face the camera with incredible and delightful expressions. In Aquatics, a ray seems to fly as it flaps its underwater wings, while a whale's tail - captured close up - takes on powerfully graphic proportions. Printed in tritone reproduction, Aquatics is a magnificant companion to the exhibition of the same name, which begins its tour of the United States at the Edward Carter Gallery in New York City, November 2001.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Horenstein, "like photographers from Weston to Mapplethorpe, makes quasi abstractions out of living forms" - The Boston Globe

About the Author

Henry Horenstein is the author of more than two dozen, books for adults and children, including the acclaimed Creatures (Stewart, Tabori & Chang). His textbooks, such as Black and White Photography (Little, Brown), are widely used in college and art school classes throughout the United States. Horenstein teaches photography and illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 84 pages
• Publisher: Stewart, Tabori and Chang; First Edition edition (September 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584790989
• ISBN-13: 978-1584790983
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 9.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,260,293 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars through a glass wetly, December 22, 2001

By 

owen edwards "Ink-stained Owen" (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Aquatics (Hardcover)

Henry Horenstein has done it again.

I won't pretend that I'm a disinterested reader; I wrote the introduction to the paperback version of this photographer's book "Creatures." But I'm a recovering photography critic, and I like to think I've learned a few things about what's good and what's merely glamorous. In "Aquatics," Horenstein has continued on a recent path, an approach to photographing animals and fish without going into the bush or strapping on tanks and going underwater. He does this by spending his days at zoos and aquariums, at no risk to his life or equipment (except maybe on trips to the Bronx Zoo). The advantage this gives him is that rather than worrying about survival, he can think about artistry. And the art that results is mysterious and wonderful. In "Aquatics," we see, in glorious black and white, sea creatures of surpassing strangeness, seen by a photographer who celebrates that strangeness with an unforgettable vision. It's an us-and-them world that Horenstein shows us, with fish, reptiles, jellyfish, and all manner of other oddities, coming into view in a way both beautiful and scarifying. He shows us denizens of a darker, colder world as we might encounter them through the glass of a face mask, but far closer than we might want or ever be able to manage. And the best thing is that, for all the sense of being right there with these critters, neither we nor Horenstein had to get cold, wet, or scared to death. This is an elegant and terrific book (and I didn't write the introduction).

Owen Edwards