Recent Books of Interest

Olafur Eliasson, "Sonne statt Regen" or Self-Titled/Untitled book (not sure about actual title). There is no text in this book - just beautiful photos of the Icelandic landscape. I was hooked on this book once I saw the sixteen 2-page spreads Eliasson devoted to a half and half horizontal compositions of landscape/sky. A nod to Hiroshi Sugimoto's "Seascape" series in which the photographer takes photos of different bodies of water with a 50/50 horizontal composition of water and sky. Sugimoto presents his "Seascapes" in a line along gallery walls so the horizon from one image visually connects with the horizon of the neighboring image. Hiroshi Sugimoto "Seascape"

Similar to Sugimoto's works, the sixteen spreads in the Eliasson book show different landscapes that are all presented in the same way from page to page so that the reader can envision a long 32 page horizon. The book itself is 14" long and the physical length of the book lends to the imagery. The comparisons from spread to spread are interesting as well and comment on the uniqueness of each image while comparing the similarities through the exactness of presentation. The sparseness of these images is immediatly appealing to me, and near the beginning of the book Eliasson balances the expanse of later pages by picturing tiny thumbnail images on large pages. The entire book is an interesting mix of balance, organization, and quietness. This is eye-candy for sure, but it presents interesting conceptual themes as well. According to the Amazon.com review "This lavish, oversized book, published in an edition of only 1,500 copies and conceived in cooperation with the artist, features a series of landscape photographs by Eliasson from his native Iceland, exploring the limits and conventions of our traditional view of landscape. They show that our perception of nature has been fundamentally affected by cultural influences, memories, and expectations."

Eliasson's images of Iceland reminded me of my recent trip through Wyoming. Wyoming is the most sparse landscape I can recall - with miles and miles of open plains, sage brush, and what many would consider nothingness. I loved it - I think everyone should take a drive through Wyoming. The above picture was taken from the highway in Wyoming and perfectly paraphrases the expanse of that region. I would highly recommend this book - if only for a beautiful coffee table book.

Another recent purchase is Alan Berger's book "Drosscape: Wasting Land in Urban America".

This book is heavier on content - with many pages devoted to graphs and diagrams of contemporary urban expansion. There are several case-studies on different cities and regions including one on the Denver. Berger writes that "The term drosscape implies that dross, or waste, is scaped, or resurfaced and reprogrammed by human intentions." It is not a light read, but Drosscape has a wealth of information regarding the topic of waste(d) landscape. There are aerial photos on nearly every page of the book that help to illustrate and support his analysis. Many of the images are similar to those I've been posting on this blog and on flickr - though with different intentions; for documentation and comparison reasons rather than the more aesthetic intentions of my own photos.