Customer Reviews

Botanica Magnifica: Portraits of the World's Most Extraordinary Flowers and Plants

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

Sadly, I have sent this book back. I was well aware of Singer's superb photography and had been wanting this book for a number of months. After looking thru it, I kept feeling very disappointed and could not pinpoint the problem. My wife pointed out that the paper was very matt. On the cover of the book is a photo in gloss and it jumps out. The back cover is tremendous, but the same photo in the book is dead.
The gloss makes it come alive and look 3 dimensional. The matt paper makes the photo 2 dimensional and dead. I don't know why they didn't print the inside in gloss, the book is very expensive but I would have gladly paid more to have the gloss paper. You lose all the detail, the fine aspects of the flower and plant are simply lost.

If you take your time once in your life to really look at the beauty in flowers and plants, allow it to be in this wonderful book of photography.
Words cannot describe just how beautiful this photography is.
Buy it, look at it, look at it again and again. Let it sit out so others can enjoy and appreciate the beauty of plants that we normally do not stop to see.
One of the best photography books ever published. EVER.

Botanica Magnifica is the finest photograpy book I have ever owned .I strongly recommend buying the book if you are a flower lover,photography fan or an enviromentalist who loves this planet.What a great book for art lovers and scientists alike. Great job Mr.Singer and thank you for bringing our planets flowers to the forefront to be seen like never before.

'Nature is the greatest in the smallest things' would be another apt title for this eloquent homage to the Phylum Anthophyta that Abbeville Press has published of the works of Jonathan Singer. BOTANICA MAGNIFICA: PORTRAITS OF THE WORLD'S MOST EXTRAORDINARY FLOWERS AND PLANTS is a treasure chest of the art of Singer as he composes these images of plant life. His artistry with the camera is better known from gallery and museum visits, but here, in a deluxe slipcovered book are examples of the creative eye of Singer - so close that the viewer can see every detail of some of the strangest examples of the majesty of the floral wonders of the planet.

Singer seems to favor the unusual, the delicate, the mysterious specimens of the plant phylum and he shares those by making the space around them a negative element: the backgrounds are black and this pushes the vivid colors forward. While many of the plants are likely never to be seen by us, Singer also finds the beauty in the familiar. His compositions of an Iceland poppy with buds and his isolation of just one of the blossoms on a stalk of digitalis will now always make us the viewer more cognizant of the beauty of these rather common members of most gardens in this country.

The book is, as mentioned, in a slipcover that is guaranteed to protect the book within, and the book itself measures 16" X 12 1/2" X 2"! This is one of the works of publishing art that deserves a special place where the true magic of the universe can be explored at will in one's own home. There will soon be another volume of the art of Jonathan Singer - TULIPAE HORTORUM - and given the beauty of this collection it would be wise to order a volume of that book now. Books of this class don't remain on the selves long. Grady Harp, July 10

There aren't enough stars in this rating system! Every aspect of this book is superlative, from the exquisite photography and informed descriptions to the amazing production value. The original price of nearly $200 is understandable. That Amazon sold it for less than $100 is a gift.

This book was a gift to my wife who has spent several months in the Amazon jungle photographing flowers and butterflies.
She was very impressed with the quality of the photography, and the artistic quality of the individual flower portraits. We had
seen the article in Smithsonian and were impressed with the background material. One can only give high recommendation
to the overall quality of the book. It is certainly an example of state of the art publication, and an impressive addition to our
home library.

Fantastic work at great value. A treasure to keep for generations.
Bought at Amazon

THE BOOK IS LARGE, IMPRESSIVELY SLIP-COVERED; ARRIVED IN PERFECT CONDITION FROM AMAZON. I RETURNED THE BOOK DUE TO A DISAPPOINTMENT WITH THE QUALITY OF THE SIZABLE PHOTOGRAPHIC REPRODUCTIONS. THE IMAGES WERE ENLARGED BEYOND THE LIMITS OF RETAINING SHARP FOCUS. THE IMAGES WERE "FUZZY". THIS IS MY FIRST RETURNED AMAZON PURCHASE . MY REFUND WAS PROMPT. THANKS, DONALD ROLLER WILSON