Portraits of Himalayan Flowers [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

Toshio Yoshida (Author), Daniel J. Hinkley (Author), Maurice Horn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2002

This enchanting photo journal is the first pictorial book on Himalayan flowers covering the whole area from Pakistan and northwestern India through Tibet and Nepal to Bhutan. Large photos of diminutive flowers set against the backdrop of the large-scale surroundings of the Himalaya are supplemented by brief captions blending technical data from the author's field notes with personal observations. The result is a book that is as informative as it is inspiring.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Braving every hardship from monsoon rains and altitude sickness to hungry leeches, Yoshida pursued a personal and unwavering imperative--to capture the haunting beauty of rare alpine species in an unparalleled photographic record. Over the span of a decade, Yoshida trekked throughout remote Himalayan realms, and now, inspired by the Tibetan rosary of 108 beads, offers a like number of portraits of botanical treasures. In order to find and document all of these flowers, Yoshida often abided storms and other travails for days and weeks, waiting for skies to clear. Then, seizing the opportunity, Yoshida photographed plant specimens in detailed close-ups, set off by sublime mountain peaks and craggy terrain in the distance. An uncommon melding of science, art, and horticulture is unveiled in the book's series of exquisite images. Brief, yet utterly fascinating, Yoshida's narratives complement the portraits by providing field notes that virtually transport readers to the lofty climes inhabited by the mystical, alluring plant life presented here. Alice Joyce
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"An incredibly interesting book . . . . Yoshida did a fantastic job with all 108 full color photographs that are in the book." -- Sheri Ann Richardson, Exotic Gardening, October 2002

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 124 pages
• Publisher: Timber Press, Incorporated (September 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0881925519
• ISBN-13: 978-0881925517
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 8.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,280,971 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome, November 9, 2003

By 

Valerie Adolph "Coast Journal" (Pacific Northwest) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Portraits of Himalayan Flowers (Hardcover)

This book contains the fruits of ten years of trekking in Nepal at high altitudes, in the most inhospitable terrain, during the monsoon to photograph the flowers of the region in their natural environment. This has to be done during the monsoon, when rain and sleet makes streams impassable and mist shrouds the mountains because that's the only time the flowers bloom. And what flowers they are. Their adaptation to the rocky cold world is often quite amazing. I expected to find pictures of primulas, rhododendrons, meconopsis - and these are all here. The cover shows a meconopsis that just about knocked my socks off. But there are other flowers too, some of which create a nice warm tent to encourage pollinators to visit. These and other adaptations are part of the fascination of this book.

You'll find in the book 108 beautiful flower photographs, often taken while lying on the wet stony ground after a wait of hours or days for the rains to let up and the sun to shine. Each picture is accompanied by brief field notes about the plant and they are arranged in taxonomic order. Why are there 108 photographs? Because that is the number of beads on a Tibetan rosary. The photographers sense of this being a spiritual quest as well as a scientific quest is demonstrated in the precision and beauty of the photographs.

Some of the flowers are familiar to us. There's a bergenia and a geranium not unlike those in my garden. But then there's a relative of the rhubarb that looks like a stack of cream puffs and can grow up to six feet tall. Inside the cream puffs the temperature is five degrees warmer than the inside - certainly attractive to pollinators in the Himalayan cold.

Toshio Yoshida has given us a rare treat in this book, giving readers vivid images of plants we may never see against a backdrop of the glaciers and peaks of the Himalayan mountains. His deep understanding of the place and the environment and his synthesis of the complexities of spiritual, artistic and scientific approaches has resulted in a book that can be appreciated on many levels.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding photography! Colorful flowers!, October 14, 2002

By 

Sheri Ann Richerson "ExoticGardening.com" (Marion, IN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Portraits of Himalayan Flowers (Hardcover)

This is an incredibly interesting book full of photographs showing the plants in their native environment. Toshio Yoshida did a fantastic job with all 108 full color photographs that are in the book.

By getting down on the ground and looking up at the plants you will get to see a viewpoint that is rarely offered in the world of plant photography.

Each photo caption contains the botanical name of the species as well as a wonderful description. While I'm not a big fan of photography books, the photos in this book definitely made me sit up and take notice.

There are plants in there that I had never seen before which were so unusual that they made me want to find out more about them. If you like unusual plants that are brightly colored or plant photographs that are above the average then you will want to acquire this book for your library.

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Nature Book, May 28, 2009

By 

Joseph H. Beelart Jr. "Joe Hector" (near Portland, Oregon USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Portraits of Himalayan Flowers (Hardcover)

I was absolutely stunned by the beauty of the photographs and quality of writing.

This book is about much more than flowers.

Look for a bargain, as you will find your money very well spent.

Joe Beelart
West Linn, Oregon