Magnum Landscape (Hardcover)

by Ian Jeffrey (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Landscape, says Henri Peretz, is the photographic genre which above all others "sets in competition the simple viewer, the painter, the amateur and professional photographer." This book, which marks the 50th anniversary of the Magnum Photo Agency, collects images by some of the most imaginative photographers of the century. Many have the eye of great painters: Henri Cartier-Bresson's study of picnickers on the bank of the River Marne is like a Renoir brought to life, while Bruno Barbey's exquisite color image of soldiers descending the hills of Kurdistan has the quality of an Albert Bierstadt canvas. There are some wonderfully surreal visions here too, such as Bruce Davidson's shot of the Statue of Liberty with a New Jersey junkyard in the foreground, and Richard Kalvar's image of a naked man on the Brooklyn Bridge.

Review
'A collection of cracking landscapes from members of the world renowned picture agency.' (Practical Photography) 'An inspiring and diverse collection' (Amateur Photographer) 'One of the most successful photography books of this year' (Wallpaper*) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 184 pages
• Publisher: Phaidon Press (May 22, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0714836427
• ISBN-13: 978-0714836423
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,025,918 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not your average landscape photography book, August 12, 2000

By	"incascott" (Pleasanton, CA United States) - See all my reviews

You wouldn't think Magnum, a photo agency best known for its outstanding photojournalism, could produce a compelling collection of landscape photographs. But going through the book, it made perfect sense. These photographs aren't the sublime visions of the natural world one associates with the art of landscape, whether in photography (e.g., A. Adams, the Westons) or painting (e.g., all of the Hudson River School artists), but are reports of the state of the world expressed through our landscape. It works much in the same way as Magnum Degrees (the more conventional Magnum collection, which sets forth a gripping vision of the state of the world at the end of the millenium), but instead of events and people, the environment is the primary mode of expression in Magnum Landscape. (There are some overlapping photos between the two books, in fact.) This isn't to say the photos aren't beautiful and artfully composed, because most of them are, in their own way. My admiration for Magnum photographers grows each time I discover one of their books. My admiration for the reproduction quality of Magnum Landscape, however, is nonexistent. The printing, frankly, blows (judging from a comparison of photos that are reproduced in both Landscape and Degrees). The book is probably still worth getting, because it's the only way you can get this fine selection of photographs.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lessons in seeing, May 5, 2000

By	Alan Little (Munich Germany) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Look at a famous Ansel Adams print and you see (generalising grossly) a technically immaculate, beautiful image of something that is itself obviously impressive and beautiful. Which is not to belittle the level of visual imagination and craftsmanship that went into making those photographs.

Look at some of the images in this book and you see something utterly different -- the ability to see a picture, to pull a compelling and fascinating image, out of nothing, out of scenes most people wouldn't even glance twice at. Street corners, car parks, shadows on sand.

Again a gross generalisation, and there is work from a lot of different photographers in the book, but there is a coherent editorial eye at work here and a definite Magnum "house style".

I bought this book at the same time as a book of Ansel Adams classic prints. I looked through this one first and thought "oh no, now the Ansel Adams stuff will be boring". It isn't, it's completely different, but for me the Magnum pictures are more inspiring.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It is what it is, May 19, 2006

By	Eric C. Ratkowski "Wunderspat" (Detroit, MI USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Magnum Landscape (Paperback)

This is a book with no pretense: Fantastic images, from some of the world's greatest photographers, collected under the shaky title of "landscape," and put together in a well-designed, under-sized, cheaply produced pamphlet-book that can be purchased for under twenty dollars.