Butterflies in Flight [Hardcover]

Roger Camp (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 17, 2002

Here is an exquisitely beautiful homage to the colorful celebrity of the insect world, the butterfly.

With more than 300 photographs of real butterflies, depicted in all their lightness and brilliance, and presented in a unique accordion-fold format, Butterflies in Flight is a strikingly attractive gift book that will appeal to anyone who appreciates art and nature. Hundreds of butterflies soar and drift across the page. Each panel of this traditional Japanese format stands on its own visually, yet is also designed to lead to the next panel so that the flight itself appears to glide, panel after panel, before the viewer.

The accordion format, which unfolds to more than 23 feet, allows the book to be set upright and displayed as a delightful art object. Roger Camp has brilliantly used modern techniques of photography and digital imaging to create an irresistible flight of real butterflies. He was first inspired by Kanzaka Sekka's 1904 woodblock-printed book, One Thousand Kinds of Butterflies, to find a contemporary way of marrying beauty with technology, thus creating a magical presentation of these infinitely graceful creatures. Fully illustrated throughout

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This striking evergreen volume, when removed from its equally evergreen slipcase, opens to reveal shiny, black accordion-fold pages-more than 70 feet of them-over which nearly 300 species of butterflies flit and flutter in full digitally-enhanced color and detail. To achieve such startling verisimilitude, Camp captured butterflies around the world and--believe it or not--placed them on a scanner, pulled up their likenesses on screen and essentially photoshopped them into shape. (What would Nabokov, that old moth-chaser, think?) Too limited in informative text for the avid lepidopterist or even the amateur with a winged creature in his net (there is no discussion of specimens or habitat, or indeed, of anything at all), this is, instead, an art book of nature: "marrying beauty with science," Camp writes, was his sole intention. And the butterflies do shine brilliantly: their colors-the acid green of Ornithoptera p. priamus, the scarlet and blue color blocks of Agrias claudina--are so vivid as to be nearly shocking. Camp's book may not serve a clear purpose, but it's undeniably lovely to look at.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Butterflies are miracles of floating color.  Butterflies in Flight is a miracle too.  This is a scene
of magisterial beauty.  Butterflies in Flight puts the wonder back in wonderful. --Gene Shalit, Arts Editor, NBC Today Show

Roger Camp's delightful Butterflies in Flight proves once again how a book can be an art object unto itself. --Ron Berthold, Arts Editor, Associated Press

This in my opinion is the best artistic book about butterflies since 'Beningfield's Butterflies' and is a superb testimony to their grace, elegance and colour. --Suffolk Naturalists' Society

Striking evergreen volume.  An art book of nature.  And the butterflies are so vivid as to be nearly shocking.  Undeniably lovely to look at. --Publisher's Weekly

In this unique accordion fold book Camp has stopped butterflies in flight and laid them to rest on glossy black pages that fold out to reveal your very own butterfly room.  Sumptuous, exquisite and unique. --Just Books

An exquisite, coolly rendered art object. -- American Photo, February 2003

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 104 pages
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson (October 17, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0500510903
• ISBN-13: 978-0500510902
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 9.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #920,389 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Roger Camp is a professor of photography and literature. He has taught photography and/or English at the University of Iowa, Columbus College of Art & Design, Eastern Illinois University, Golden West College, and the Cite Internationale Universitaire de Paris.

His photographs have been published in over 100 magazines including American Photo, Popular Photography, Photomarket, Photo Techniques, Photographics Magazine, Sports International, Americas, Darkroom Photography, North American Review, Harvard Advocate and the New York Quarterly.

His work has been exhibited in over 150 exhibitions world wide including Ohio State University, University of Florida, Image Gallery, Roanoke Museum of Fine Arts, Museum of Fine Arts, Arizona St. University, Chrysler Museum, University of California Riverside, University of Wisconsin, Laguna Art Museum, University of Denver, University of Oregon Museum of Art, International Photography Museum, G. Ray Hawkins Gallery, Burden Gallery, and the Robin Rice Gallery. Public and Private collections include California Museum of Photography, Coca Cola Inc, IBM Corporation, Bloomingdales, Johnson & Johnson, Kaiser Foundation, Lucent Technologies, Packard Foundation, Freddie Mac and the Mayo Foundation.


Awards include visual fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown and the Leica Medal of Excellence in documentary photography.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Flight and Color as Rhythm, October 22, 2002

By 

D. R. Belknap (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Butterflies in Flight (Hardcover)

The joy that Camp brings to this accordian format tickles my senses and transports me to long-ago childhood gardens. Colors dazzle, while shapes and markings mystify me. He offers a wondrous world, indeed. I deeply appreciate the hours and patience Camp devoted to this digital project - that we might take off on our own flights of fancy. This is a marvelous gift for the holiday season. It should have a vast appeal to naturalists and photographers, both the young and the adult.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sublime, January 21, 2006

By 

elizabeth - See all my reviews

This review is from: Butterflies in Flight (Hardcover)

I have gifted this book repeatedly. All who have received it are inspired by its sheer beauty. Captivated by its presentation. Quite simply - a treasure to own.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Art and the Butterfly, October 2, 2002

By 

Thea M. Ryan (South Dakota, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Butterflies in Flight (Hardcover)

If you love art as much as you love butterflies, you'll find this book is an amazing combination of the two. The layout and design makes it all the more unique. If you have a butterfly lover in your family, you MUST add this to their holiday gifts.