Pictures from the Surface of the Earth [Hardcover]

Wim Wenders (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2003

Globetrotting filmmaker Wim Wenders always takes his old panorama camera with him, using it whenever the sheer wealth of what he sees and the impression it leaves on him breaks the normal scale of things. Infinite landscapes, endless horizons, deserts, and mountain ranges overwhelm by their emptiness and silence, street fronts in Havana, Houston, Berlin, or Jerusalem offer deep insights into the shallows of civilization. Wenders’ photographs are pictures of a world almost devoid of humans, a natural or man-made world viewed from a distance. They shed light on the many guises the surface of the earth dons and attest to Wenders’ contemplative and amazed gaze. This gaze, of course, didn’t stop at September 11 and delivered haunting photos of Ground Zero taken shortly after the attack. With poetic comments by the artist on all the pictures, the book is both a portrait of the world as encountered by the photographer and a portrait of the photographer as reflected in his vision of the world.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

* 30 color photographs and 21 gatefolds
* In 2002, a selection was exhibited at Hamburger train station in Berlin
* related backlist: Buena Vista Social Club (3-8238-5444-5), The Heart Is a Sleeping Beauty (3-8238-5468-2) and Written In the West (3-8238-5469-0)

About the Author

Texts by Wim Wenders and Peter-Klaus Schuster

Wim Wenders, born in Düsseldorf in 1945, is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, and photographer. President of the European Film Academy since 1996, he lives in Los Angeles and Berlin.

Peter-Klaus Schuster, born in Calw, Germany, in 1943, is General Director of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and director of the Nationalgalerie Berlin. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 124 pages
• Publisher: Schirmer/Mosel Verlag Gmbh; First Edition edition (July 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3829600518
• ISBN-13: 978-3829600514
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 10.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,054,226 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't resist the 5 Star rating..., November 22, 2006

By 

D. W. Spicer "Phreak Phor Photography" (USA - South) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pictures from the Surface of the Earth (Hardcover)

I was tempted to give this a 4 Star rating due to being spoiled by Wim Wender's book "Once" - it is the text associated with the photos that really makes that book ("Once") an absolute masterpiece. But, right as I started to go for the 4, I considered the photographs themselves. Wim has such a great eye and can convey such loneliness and singular isolation from within the frame of something beautiful and busy, that I had to go for the 5 Stars.

[...]Next step will be to get Wim associated with the quality of photo book publishers that produce books for Robert Polidori and ilk - so some of the richer content that can be seen in Wim's original photos can be enjoyed by everyone.

A treasure in the cinema and a treasure in the darkroom...

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compositional perfection!, July 4, 2008

By 

NDT (Sydney Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pictures from the Surface of the Earth (Hardcover)

The images created by Wenders in this book are nothing short of extraordinary. His eye for colour and composition are remarkable. They are very evocative by the simplest and most minimalist methods. This edition can be enjoyed in association with the liner notes which appear on his website under "haiku's", small poetic passages, describing the scene, mood and intent. A must have!