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60 of 60 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Magnificent Photographs Of Stunning Seascapes!, August 5, 2003
This review is from: The Sea (Hardcover)
"The Sea" is a magnificent book of photographs. Anyone who loves the the world's great bodies of water will be awed by Philip Plisson's stunning seascapes. He has captured the oceans in all moods, in all their glory - gentle, tempestuous, mysterious, terrifying, powerful. There is the beautiful tranquility of the Caribbean, and the stormy violence of the North Atlantic. And Plisson also captures the elusive quality of light, and the way it falls on water. His successful efforts to capture the right light, at the best moment, to enhance the particular quality of the sea he wants to exhibit, is worth the price of the book alone. Many of his remarkable images feature lighthouses, ancient tall ships, and modern sail boats, regattas, and sailors alone with the elements. The vast sea, however, is the dominant presence in all the photographs. There is very little text here. The monumental photographs speak for themselves. Yann Queffelec's Introduction does provide a perfect setting, and Elaine Georges' text is well written. I bought this huge, (11.5" X 14.5"), coffee-table book for a sailing mate's birthday, and he absolutely loves it. There are a total of 400 photographs, and four fold-out panoramas. I have looked through my gift so many times that I decided to purchase one of my own. I highly recommend this beautiful book!
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
'Behold, the sea itself', March 11, 2006
This review is from: The Sea (Hardcover)
This opening phrase from Walt Whitman's epic poem 'A Song for all Seas, All Ships' best describes this visually stunning photographic essay of the many manifestations of the sea, that mighty body of water that reigns the planet and as such reigns the hearts and imaginations of poets, painter, writers, and dreamers alike. Philip Plisson is highly regarded as a marine photographer and has here selected some of the finest of his works that explore the massive body of water, of history, of romance, of treacherous vagaries, and of man's humble intervention with oceans around the world.
In rich color these photographs are most expressive when they deal solely with the body of water itself, the myriad surfaces of calm, tranquility, storm and rage and the eruptions of violence against rocks and cliffs and ships. Thankfully there are no written words to distract from the images, though there are notes in the postlude that describe the various areas of origin of the photographs.
This is a book for lovers of the sea. In scale of the book's size as well as the content of visual imagination this is a mighty work. Or as Whitman phrased it 'Sail forth - steer for the deep waters only, Reckless, O soul, exploring...' Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, March 06
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Must Have for Sea Lovers and Art Lovers, August 16, 2006
This review is from: The Sea (Hardcover)
Wow, substantial is an understatement - 195 photographs (most of them 22x14 +) and 16 panoramic foldouts. Aside from the calm, the charming and the rapturous faces of the sea that you can normally imagine, could the sea be like the desert, hot lava, an impressionist's oil painting, fields of grain, bubbling rocks and sand paper...? Find out in this book of photography. I always thought photographs are comparatively realistic. But Philip Plisson's skills conjured up powerful imagery from reality to fantasy, from abstract to molecularly concrete. It is a feast to the eye and possibly shocks to the senses.
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