Robert Polidori's Metropolis (Hardcover)

~ (Photographer), Criswell Lapin (Contributor), MartIn Pedersen (Contributor)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Not only is he one of the world’s preeminent architecture photographers, Robert Polidori is also--as his popular book Havana proved--a master of urban portraiture. The Montreal-born photographer has made haunting studies of bombed-out buildings in Beirut, decaying New York tenements, Versailles rooms in dusty disarray, Brasilia's paean to spare '50s modernism, and, most recently, the abandoned, contaminated cities of Chernobyl and Pripyat. Taken together, they add to his ongoing project: the interpretation of the interrupted urban landscape.

This new monograph combines the eye of a celebrated photographer with the distinctive voice of an artist and adventurer. Each breathtaking image--meticulously selected by the photographer from his own personal archive--is accompanied by a compelling first person account, based on interviews conducted by Martin C. Pedersen, executive editor of Metropolis magazine. Polidori tells behind-the-scene stories about the making of his photographs, takes us to war-torn Beirut and Brasilia and other world capitals, talks about what makes a building photogenic, how he shoots buildings he doesn’t like, his favorite architects, and his love of mosques. A look at the world’s great cities as seen through the eyes of a sharp social observer--and a great photographer.

Often considered an architectural photographer, Robert Polidori is in fact a photographer of habitat. On the surface, his subjects are buildings. But at the core his lens is focused on the remnants and traces of living he finds scattered in hallways, left in back rooms and worn on façades. --The Globalist

The most interesting things are always behind us. I look at everything as archaeology. --Robert Polidori

With Martin C. Pedersen and Criswell Lapin.

Hardcover, 11.5 x 10.75 in. / 128 pgs / 60 color.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Metropolis Books (November 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1891024981
• ISBN-13: 978-1891024986
• Product Dimensions: 11.6 x 11.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #658,229 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Photography of Architecture as Archaeology, March 11, 2005

By	Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Photographer Robert Polidori is at once a journalist and an artist and combines these two elements of inspection and observation into a remarkably beautiful and touching book.

Polidori is fascinated, even obsessed, with architecture as evidence of the presence or absence of man, praising the feats of the creators and the flaws of the destroyers. Based on his photographs of devastated buildings in Beirut, Chernobyl, Pripyat, and the crumblings of Brasilia and our own New York tenement buildings, Polidori's photographs are at once beautiful images of execution and tragic reminders of the building up and tearing down of man's proof of his existence in this civilization.

Adding to the drama of this touching portfolio are interviews with the artist sensitively conducted by Martin C. Pedersen (who just happens to be the editor of the magazine METROPOLIS). These conversations illuminate the interstices of the buildings photographed, suggesting why the hidden back rooms, stairwells, and hallways tell as much about the life of the building as do the facades Polidori finds so fascinating.

For students of Architecture, Photography, Sociology, Archaeology and for all who appreciate the fine art of photography, this is a book of rare distinction. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, March 05