27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Top 38, July 6, 2004
This is another volume from the publisher, Rotovision, aimed at presenting readers with pictures of a single genre from the world's top photographers. The author of the volume, Terry Hope writes regularly about photography.
The book devotes between two and six pages to the photographs of each of the 38 photographers selected. Besides the photographs, there is a statement of several paragraphs from each artist that may explain how he or she came to landscape photography or what techniques are used. Then, each picture is also supported by a few sentences that explain how the photographer came to take the particular picture or select his or her technique.
The quality of the printing is good, although interestingly, when I compared pictures in this book with the same photos in books presented under the aegis of the individual photographers, there were sometimes significant differences in hue.
There is no doubt that each of the pictures is world class. One could quibble with the selection of photographers but the pictures themselves are great landscapes that will appeal to those who love this genre. The problem with the collection is that there are not enough pictures by any individual photographer to really develop an appreciation of his or her art. Moreover, because the pictures are organized by artist, it's difficult to develop a sense of the different approaches that photographers take to subject matter or technique. That doesn't mean it is impossible, but it will take a lot of work on the part of the reader without any help from the author.
For example one could compare the picture taken by Jack Dykinga of a boulder in Joshua Tree National Park with one taken of the very same stone by Michael Fatali. The slight variations in angle and light in the sky present different pictures that can tell you something about the individual photographer and his approach to landscape. In fact, close reading of all the work can help the reader to understand that these pictures are not merely recording physical phenomena. Instead they are showing how the great photographers bring their own vision of the world to the subject matter and, indeed, impress that vision upon the subject matter. The close reading may actually lead one to ask, what is the truth of a photograph if the photographer can so alter what he sees without changing the form of the subject?
The book is most useful as a tool to introduce the reader to photographers of whom he may never have heard and then lead the reader to further acquaint himself with those he likes. For someone interested in photography that's not a mean accomplishment.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Great Annotated Selection of Contemporary Landscape Classi, December 12, 2004
A Great Annotated Selection of Contemporary Landscape Classics
This text is a compilation of some of the most beautiful images of thirty-eight contemporary great landscape practitioners. Given the wide variety of photographers included in the collection one gets to see images depicting nature's beauty covering all of the continents. While you get images of familiar places like Monument Valley and Yosemite National Park in the American West, you also find stunning images of Lake District, the Scottish Highlands and poppy fields of southern France, you also find dramatic images of picturesque beaches east coast of Australia, the sand dunes of Namibia and the cedar-forested Okumikawa Mountains of Japan.
Terry Hope has aptly situated landscape photography in a very well written introduction. Right at the outset he outlines how the vast popularity of landscape photography has made it a field so difficult to make a dent in it as a professional. In his brief introduction, he has touched upon the commonality among some of its practitioners taking the medium of landscape photography as a spiritual quest. This comes out later vividly through the comments of Michael Fatali, Ken Duncan, Shinzo Maede among others.
Hope has also delineated the challenges in the field of landscape picture making apart from its being less remunerative when compared to other branches of photography. Those who intend to take it as a full time vocation face: "the frustration that the weather only rarely cooperates, the long working hours, and having to routinely rise at ungodly hours." Those committed to making great landscape pictures should be ready to trek miles with heavy load of photographic gears and be ready to give up public access points that hardly produce great pictures. Here only the passionate and truly committed survives.
The arrangement of photographers is understandably alphabetical (most find the arrangement value neutral). Each photographer is introduced with a brief background and then the discussion centers on distinctive aspects and/or ideas of the artist. The images are carefully selected to act some kind of a representative sample of the artist's credo. Each image is accompanied with a commentary that is sometimes short yet highly informative and sometimes depicting the detailed story behind the creation of that image like Ken Duncan telling us the inside story behind making of his the Promise of peace image, made at the Yankee Boy Basin, Colorado, USA. In another detailed commentary, we get to know from Colin Prior in a discussion on Glen Etive image as to why he did not choose the 35 mm format despite the possibility of getting "the most wonderful image of the eagles with the golden mountains behind them," and stuck to his 6x17cm format to make the image. There are a number of such detailed commentaries on selected images.
The images chosen here depict the expansive vision of a Macduff Everton to the brief interpretation of a subject akin to a `haiku' poem by Shinzo Maede, from the poetic rendering of God's creation by a Fatali, from Dykinga's images with a purpose to the large canvases of Duncan and Khanfar. What balance the splash of color all over the text are some stunning black and white images of Catherine Ames, Sally Gall, Marty Knapp and Lynn Radeka.
Aspiring landscape photographers looking for some practical advice could well use this text: the section on Yousef Khanfar gives us what he thinks as the core on which the art of landscape photography rests. His views how to go about selecting films is really helpful. He stresses the point that the brand of film that you use is less important than getting to know it really well. Almost all of the artists here also give their rationale for their equipment selection and it is essentially guided by the kind of work they went on to do.
Another aspect strikes one's attention is that all of the images in the text are created on film only Jim Brandenburg talks excitedly about the realizable benefits of digital photography. In another instance, Tom Mackie briefly discusses his digital manipulation of the Canoeist on Lake Buttermore image and how it improved sales later. Almost all of the artists use medium and large format cameras for their work except the departed Galen Rowell who relied exclusively on 35mm format for the images selected here.
A very useful feature is the directory of artists at the end of the book. Those like me who are keen on exploring more the work of these artists can use the URLs, email ids and others details including the selective bibliography provide for most of the artists.
What is missing in most of the images in the text is the details regarding aperture and shutter speed though in some cases without mentioning the exact shutter speed there is some talk about the duration of the shot. However, this is not so serious a problem. Another problem is that some of the images are printed in small size but we would have benefited more if they were bigger.
Since this text is compilation of contemporary greats among landscape practitioners, I believe a great artist like David Noton should have been included. I, being a great fan of his work, hope that he might find a place in the future editions of the book.
In fine, it is definitely well worth having for anybody with a keen interest in landscape photography.
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