From Publishers Weekly
Philippe's aerial and ground photos of the Loire River Valley, the residential center of French nobility until the reign of Louis XIVportray 19 chateaux, ranging in design from medieval fortresses to Renaissance palaces. His lens captures a tree-hidden chateau tower and spies through the clouds upon buildings and landscapes. He chooses dark backdrops for the austere chateaux, like Voltaire's home, Sully-sur Loire, and brighter skies for the peaceful Renaissance structures. The pictures are multiseasonalelaborate, sprawling gardens in winter white as well as summer green, vast grounds covered with autumn leaves, the Loire frozen in the winter. Gouvion's fine notes at the end describing the salient architectural features and the historical importance of each chateau would have been more useful within the body of the book. Philippe and Gouvion previouslycollaborated on Paris from the Air.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This book closely resembles William Allard's Vanishing Breed (LJ 1/15/83) in scope and sensibility. Like his, these expertly composed color photographs, beautifully reproduced here, provide a romantic portrait of cowboy life today. Nelson's work is more well rounded than Allard's, including chapters on women, craftsmen, and the next generation. Most notable, however, are the extensive quotes that accompany the photos. Full of colorful vernacular, they reinforce the ideal perception Nelson's pictures convey. It is a competent job, but the photos, though technically superb, lack the visual inventiveness found in two other recent volumes: Kurt Markus's After Barbed Wire: cowboys of our time and Norman Mauskopf's Rodeo (LJ 6/1/86). Frank Schroth, Technology Training Assocs., Cambridge, Mass.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
