Customer Reviews

Monument

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

 

 

Lynn Davis does a wonderful job with her book. I have also had the pleasure to view her work in life, and it is wonderful. I would say that Lynn Davis has an obsession with form. The shape of the monuments seem more important than the monument itself. When I look at some of her pyramids, I forget that what I am looking at is a pyramid as wonder about the forms and shapes in the photograph. I think some of her work has a minimal quality to it and others have very interesting compositions. One of my favorites: "Red Pyramid, Dashur, Cairo, Egypt."

Just a collection of thoughts: The original photographs are phenomenal, about 8 feet by 8 feet square. They truly should be exhibited along with the huge landscapes of David Parker, about 12 feet by four feet, which also feature natural arches in the landscape. Lynn Davis' original prints are subdued and of grade one or grade two contrast. (I'd prefer printing on grade three paper.) Lynn Davis has been doing icebergs for a long, long time. I notice that one of her iceberg photos, a color print from 1986, appears in the catalogue "The Indomitable Spirit" published by Friends United Against AIDS. What is missing from the book being reviewed is her most interesting recent landscape print, which can be seen on the card from the November 2001 exhibition at the John Berggruen Gallery. The print on the card is of a dramatic grade 3 contrast. This exciting print features an iceberg in the top left quadrant, with a dramatic inverted arch on the top surface of the ice, a nice reflection of the iceberg in the water appearing between the berg and the viewer, a thin horizon line consisting of a distant ice cliff, and in the sky, an archlike shape in the gentle cloudcover that roughly duplicates (or continues) the arch "scooped out" from the top of the berg. How excited the photographer must have been when she made the exposure. Too bad this print isn't in the book. Too bad the prints in the book are of low contrast. It is interesting that David Parker's book, "The Phenomenal World," also omits the most exciting image from David Parker's exhibition (from the Robert Koch Gallery), i.e., an arch extending from a cliff and into the ocean, with a tiny human figure standing under the arch. Both Lynn Davis' and David Parker's books would go well together, side-by-side on your art book shelf, if only as a reminder to go and see the original prints when they are on exhibit at a nearby art gallery.

For those of you who may be unfamiliar Lynn Davis; she is an American photographer whose work is widely collected and has been internationally exhibited.

Best known for her large-scale landscapes, and photographs of "monuments of the human and natural landscape", perhaps the most noteworthy characteristic of her work is its striking tonality; with strong grays, subdued whites and blacks, or, often, gold and selenium. The genius of her sparse composition and controlled modeling of light produce a restrained majesty that invokes awe.

As noted by other reviewers, this book lacks somewhat in the quality of the reproductions, and those familar with her work, enormous prints which hang in some of our finest museums, may be dissappointed a bit in the contrast; it just simply can't compare to her originals. That said, this book is well worth owning, and would be well paired with a copy of her husband's book, 'Hard Travel to Sacred Places', (Rudolf Wurlitzer, Shambhala Press, 1995) which documents the circumstances surrounding the taking of many of these photos; a trip to South East Asia after the death of their son in 1993.

Davis' prints appear in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, and the J. Paul Getty.

Davis' first exhibition hung at the International Center of Photography (New York) in 1979, alongside the work of her close friend Robert Mapplethorpe. After her first trip to Greenland in 1986 she gave up photographing the human form, shifting, instead, to the monumental landscapes and cultural/architectural icons for which she is renowned.

This book is a collection of the most seminal works of one of our greatest photograhpers, and it's a must have. It would also be well juxtaposed to display it beside a copy of 'Robert Mapplethorpe And The Classical Tradition: Photographs and Mannerist Prints' (Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 2004).

Photographer Lynn Davis is one of the best living artists working today. Lynn has an amazingly rich quality in her work which is often simple in format. A purist's take on architectural, monumental sites, and natural wonders. Her subject moves from nature to the sacred, as her travels have taken her to places such as Greenland, Africa, Cambodia, etc. This book is a most suitable document for a very important contemporary photographer.

This is a fascinating look at ancient monuments & breathtaking natural landscapes. These b/w photos capture the essence of some of the most remarkable places on Earth. The photos stand on their own with only brief captions.

In the natural world towering icebergs & rock formations stand like impressive sculptures. The geysers of Yellowstone erupt & the huge waterfalls of Canada come thundering down.

You view the grand pyramids, stone sculptures, & hieroglyphics of Egypt. Get to see the Buddhas of Thailand, sacred temples of India, & smiling stone faces of Cambodia. The clarity and detail in the photos is stunning.

My favorites include the Tetrapylon in Syria & the Cappadocia in Turkey. The architecture of these is fascinating. The tomb at St. George's Church in Ethiopia is also quite impressive.

I have collected photography books for years and have been thrilled with the improvements in reproduction especially with black and white images. This book however looks as if it was printed in the 50's. One can only hope that the originals are better than the reproductions. The subject matter has a nice theme but I could not get past the poor print quality to even try and determine if I liked the subject matter.

Lynn Davis' photographs are some of the most breathtaking that I have ever seen. They capture the essence of places so deeply that you feel not only as if you were there, tangibly, but as if you are seeing them with better eyes than your own.