The Lost Border: The Landscape of the Iron Curtain (Hardcover)

by Brian Rose (Author), Anthony Bailey (Foreword) "I began traveling along the Iron Curtain in 1985, documenting the fences and walls of the border that divided Central Europe splitting Germany in two..." (more)
Key Phrases: East German, Brandenburg Gate, East Berlin (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Rivers slash across snow-covered tundra, barbed-wire fences partition desolate fields and graffiti-covered walls divide the land in Rose’s powerful pictorial. Both structure and symbol, the Iron Curtain in this photographic record captures the physical and ideological separation between Europe and the former Soviet Union. Rose traces the Wall’s path through Austria, Hungary and Italy, as well as the lands once called East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. Understandably, the bulk of this photo-history focuses on Berlin during its division and after its reunification. Using the Brandenburg Gate as an exemplar of change, Rose first shows the structure half-hidden behind a high wall smattered with graffiti, yet clearly visible are East German flags against a crisp blue sky. In contrast, a photo taken more than a decade later sets the Brandenburg Gate against a similarly vibrant sky, but this time the image evokes intimacy. The white-walled boundary and the warning posters have been replaced by families and tourists, and a half-finished building and enormous construction cranes bespeak progress. Beautifully photographed and richly reproduced, this photographic record pairs industrial and homey images with Rose’s musings about the sights and his experiences capturing them on film. He doesn’t offer much by way of interpretation, but the photos speak for themselves. In one shot a woman stands on a desolate road truncated by wire mesh that’s blocking access to the West and all that it represents, and in another, a handful of crumbling, graffiti-covered concrete slabs stand wearily, waiting to be taken away. This is an intelligent, eye-catching chronicle of the changes, in both landscape and architecture, that occurred in central and eastern Europe throughout the 1980s and early ’90s.
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Review
Lovely, pastoral photos [of] the Iron Curtain, from the Wall in Berlin to fields where people ran for dear life. -- The San Diego Union Tribune, November 28, 2004

Rose makes strange again what had evidently become a fact of life, that the boundary between East and West... -- Art New England, Dec/Jan 2006

Starkly beautiful. -- The Chicago Tribune, February 20, 2005

a collection of starkly beautiful images. -- Jessica Reaves, Chicago Tribune

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press; 1 edition (September 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568984936
• ISBN-13: 978-1568984933
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 9.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #764,352 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Revisionst, October 2, 2005

By	Hans Dieter Wulf - See all my reviews

The Lost Border by Brian Rose fulfills an historical need by photographing the Iron Curtain before it was relegated to the dustbin of history. The photos are are in color and fill the need of being historical rather than some modern black and white modern art form which would have defeated the whole purpose of the book. I have walked the Berlin Wall many times in the 60's & 70's to take photos and aggravate the guards and for me to see the rest of the Iron Curtain in this large format book was a pleasure. I compliment Mr Rose on his endeavor. These photos show the stark reality of the evil of communism in clear detail. The Lost Border is an asset to any library; home or otherwise.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars breathtaking and chilling, August 15, 2005

By	Inge Rosemann (Greensburg, Indiana) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I grew up behind that border, lived in this grey cold world. The photographs brought back a lot of supressed memories. Looking through the book, I realized that these memories should be kept alive. Awesome and chilling at the same time. I would recommend this book to anyone....the era has passed but it was real. A lot of lives were lost at that border and many untold stories are buried with it. To me that book is a tribute to all who suffered in the name of freedom, I was just one of many.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Idea for a Photo Book, September 29, 2005

By	Robert A. Donner (Arlington, VA, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I haven't seen anyone else put together a book like this, with shots from all along the Iron Curtain in the Cold War. My only disappointment was that there's not more of it - because the work in here is excellent, and I would have loved for it to not end so soon. Highly recommended for anyone who is interested in what the Soviets did to Eastern Europe until the fall of communism.