Customer Reviews

Himalayan Odyssey

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Being a collector of photography books, I normally do not buy books of traditional landscape photography. My tastes normally lean toward more the more edgy urban "street" photographers, black and white historical photographs, and some of the modern portrait photographers, but this book is unique, and I find myself continually drawn back to it's pages.
I've seen other books on the same area of the world but Davis Robbins images are very different and unexpected.
In a place that is so distant and foreign to my own and so naturally beautiful in it's sheer vastness that you could point a camera almost any where and find something interesting, Mr. Robbins has found something new. He obviously has a place in his heart for this place and these people and his photographs are probably not what you would expect.
He seems to have that rare ability to convey the honesty in the everyday and to step beyond the seemingly brutal details of life in these environs to see into the hearts and minds of these distant people.
My favorite image in the book seems to change with each adventure through the pages, and I look forward to the discussions I have with anyone who finds it on my coffee table.

It is clear that David Robbins reveals artistic intellegence surpassed only by the beauty of his subject matter. As I turn through the pages I see metaphore after metaphore expressed by horses as mountains, a mother and child as a great wind, a man bearing a burden to the elevations as great slices of frozen rock jutt upward toward the sky. These metaphores call to us and serve as reminders of endurance, of simplicity, and all that is precious. In the pages of this book, your imagination can be unlocked and your thirst for understanding and compassion unbridled. It is important, especially in this time, to remember the beauty of the human spirit, the beauty of the earth and how they can fit together.

Short and simple will be enough here:

128 pages of mystical beauty that can be found in the Hymalayas and in this book. There is some use of symbolic metaphors of early morning mysts, people, homes, genuine symbols of culture and nature. Movements captured for an eternity. A window to peer through for most of the people that will never be able to experience and see these places and its' people in their lives. There is good in this, for too many people would destroy such beauty and equanimity....

Well beyond the typical books of this genre. Mr Robbins not only tells a story, he does it with an insight into the hardships and the religious intensities of this culture I have never felt before. This book changed me. My ultimate compliment to an author.
Buy this if you want to see beyond yourself, into another world of human existance.

Rarely have I seen a photography book that captures people and places with such power and consistency. Every image forces you to stop and explore. There is real emotion in the portraits and the landscapes place you right there. The caliber of work and the quality of print make this one of the most rewarding books I've ever owned.

In this elegantly designed and handsomely printed volume Robbins combines the keen aesthetic of a great artist with the stamina of an inveterate traveler and the instincts of an anthropolgist. His work is beautiful but never cloying and complex but never pretentious. Robbins tells us of a region full of mystery and passion -- a passion he brings in equal measure to the telling.

These photographs go beyond simply documenting an exotic culture or time. I have trekked in the Himalaya myself and no other photography book I've seen has been able to capture the unique magic of the people and place as this book does.

Well beyond the typical books of this genre. Mr Robbins not only tells a story, he does it with an insight into the hardships and the religous intensities of this culture I have never felt before. This book changed me. My ultimate compliment to an author.
Buy this if you want to see beyond yourself, into another world of human existance.

I never understood this culture till now. David Robbins images strip away the sterotypes of this culture, revealing a simple yet dynamic perspective of an isolated beauty and religous intensity I could not imagine till now.
This book has changed me, my ultimate complement to an author.
Bravo David, the measure of worth are well within thses pages.
I challenge anyone who wants to be stimulated to buy this.

First a disclaimer: I am a friend, and working peer of David's albeit my caim to fame is in an entirely different genre, though my recent work is now following in David's footsteps, metaphorically speaking.

This work is heady. Makes you a bit short of breath at times. Jealous. Beautiful. Not only the subject matter (fifty years of footprints!) but also, for me, it's the formalist quality of the actual photography. He gives us an unwavering horizontal rectangle and fills it with stunning, buzzing, mature compositons and color, whether it be in a blinding whiteout or an early morning smoke with sherpas. His photographs bring us an inherently exotic world (and thus terribly misused) in a style relative to that of Eggleston, Singh, and Misrach. Important work, that overshadows the mostly sad, mediocre books done on this region by well placed trekkers.

This is about the people, and their art of living in such a grand and harsh place. David's own art brings it all home. I congratulate him for bringing this legacy to the world.