Themes Books

When I first picked up SHAKESPEARE CATS by the British artist Susan Herbert, I was struck by the cute and colorful illustrations showing cats, my favorite animals, as Shakespearean characters. I bought the book, and as I went through it page by page I found it educational, too. Herbert has accompanied each one of her drawings -- works of art in themselves -- with a short synopsis and the relevant quotation from the play. The trouble with cats, however, is that it is not always possible to do much more than suggest emotions in their faces, which are fairly "blank." This poses a problem with the more extreme emotions in Shakespeare: Herbert's Othello (a black cat) does not look enraged nor her Macbeth (a red-orange tabby) particularly horrified. Additionally, Herbert depicts mostly tabby (striped) cats, which will probably disappoint readers who like other kinds of cats. But if these are drawbacks, they are minor ones; Herbert is a gifted artist. Her scene-composition and her bright color-choices make each illustration a feast for the eyes. There are some subtly clever facial expressions, too, like Malvolio's (TWELFTH NIGHT) self-satisfied grin or Jacques (AS YOU LIKE IT) cynical smirk. And art enthusiasts will see Herbert's drawings of Romeo leaving Juliet's balcony or the sleeping princes from RICHARD III as homages to celebrated paintings by the nineteenth century artists Dicksee and Northcote; her crazed Ophelia (with tongue hanging out) might stand beside the famous depictions of that heroine by Waterhouse or Millais! I am happy to have discovered SHAKESPEARE CATS and Herbert and will seek out more of her books.

I hoped this was a story, but I will find a way to use the pretty pictures. The book isn't constructed in a way that I can encourage its use as a picture book for young children. I do like the fact that there is a passage beside each picture. That will be of some use.

I love this book, it's so adorable and beautiful, Susan Herbert is a great artist, I admire her a lot. You see wonderful pictures of cats playing roles of some of Shakespeare plays. It's a great book for kids and also for adult too.:) If you love cats your going to love this book.

Shakespeare people also tend to be cat people: why is that? In this case, Susan Herbert has created a beautiful book for cat fans and Bard fans alike. I have all of Herbert's books, and "Shakespeare Cats" is definitely my favorite. It depicts famous moments from many of Shakespeare's plays with intricate detail, and the cats look like they're in the most natural settings in the world! It's hard to pick out my favorite illustrations, but the "Midsummer Night's Dream" picture stands out, as does the humorous painting from "The Taming of the Shrew." All of the paintings are wonderful, and this is an adorable book that you will treasure forever.

Susan Herbert is, first and foremost, a truly gifted artist. Her style, talent, color choices, all show a mastery of skill. Aside from that, though, she's also an imaginative woman who tryle appreciates the feline, as evidenced by her series of wonderful illustrated cat books.

This book, "Shakespeare Cats", functions firstly as simply an enjoyable coffee-table book for frequent perusal. On another level, though, Herbert has cleverly illustrated 32 of Shakespeare's works, and with detail. The setting of each piece, the costumes, the detail of scene-setting -- all of this shows that in addition to being a cat-lover and an artist, Herbert is also not too shabby as a Shakespearean scholar as well.

I loved this book! I enjoyed Ordinary Wolves, so I waited very anxiously for Mr. Kantner's next book. It was well worth the wait! The first thing I did was go through all of the pictures in the book. So THIS was the Alaska Mr, Kantner writes about! Far from the tour buses and sight seeing trains. The pictures themselves told a wonderful story! The written stories were perfect - done in a way that not only entertained me, but made me feel the Alaska Mr. Kantner describes. I felt the cold, I heard the wind and could feel the hide of a bear. I laughed, I cried, I cringed, and at times even envied experiences of a life spent in Alaska's Wilderness. The Alaska Mr. Kantner writes about is a world fast slipping away - native ways, unmarred land, plentiful animals. I am so grateful that he wrote about a lifestyle - a world - that I would never have had the chance to experience, had it not been for this book. I plan to buy more copies for gifts and would recommend this book to anyone!

Ordinary Wolves is an outstanding first novel, and Shopping for Porcupine is an excellent nonfiction follow-up by Seth Kantner. If you're like me while reading Ordinary Wolves, you were wondering how much of it was fiction, and how much of it was drawn from Kantner's experiences. Shopping for Porcupine gives a great deal of insight into Kantner's personal life and upbringing. It's humorous, it's moving, it's lyrical, and I highly recommend it.

An unexpected bonus of this book is the beautiful matte photography that accompanies the text. Kantner is a talented photographer as well as a gifted writer, and his shots are sprinkled liberally throughout. In addition to these, there are many family snapshots taken by Kantner's parents and their friends.

All in all, a fascinating and well-written book that portrays parts of one man's life in Alaska without the lens of romanticism that often colors Alaskan literature.

Seth Kantner's book, Shopping For Porcupine, is a viscerally real collection of portraits and recollections of life on northwestern Alaska's Kobuk River, from the late 1950's through to the present day. Kantner's folks were 'outsiders' when they settled on the Kobuk, to be followed by many more. Most have moved on, but Seth - who was born in his family's sod iglu - has remained for over 40 years. His dad's connection to the land, the Inuit culture and unfettered subsistance lifestyle rubbed off on Seth, and he has carried on those traditions while coping with the inescapable intrusions of modern Western life.

I especially appreciated the honest and literally wrenching descriptions of the changes in the land, the people, the culture and the climate, that over time serve to remind us of the impermanence of anything in this world. Yet Kantner shows us that not all change is beyond our power to control or at least influence -- although simply living by example is not always enough, and speaking up can be a little like banging a pot to scare a bear away: now he knows where you are.

I have a snapshot in my mind of the upper Kobuk during the years I lived there - many of the same people and the same lifestyle that Seth describes here so accurately. Coupled with the stories and lore from before my time, that's how I see the place and that's how I wish, in a perfect world, it could remain. The changes I hear and read about are confounding and upsetting even to me, who spent a relatively short time there. The more so for Seth Kantner, whose whole life is invested in the place. Clearly the conundrum is to decide what change to accept gracefully and what to challenge, vocally and adamantly.

Wilderness living is not for everyone, and can be almost unfathomable if you haven't done it. Hudson Stuck once said, of wilderness travel by dog team, that the greatest gift one man could give another was a trail. With his writing, Seth Kanter breaks trail through the heart of the last half-century of life in northwestern Alaska as only someone who lives the life could do. Those who find it and follow will be infinitely richer for the journey.

When I saw that Kantner had a second book, I was skeptical. It seemed to come too hard on the paws of "Ordinary Wolves." I felt there'd be no way it was as good as "Ordinary Wolves", his first book and an instant Alaskan classic, that "Porcupine" would be just cashing in on the critical acclaim of "Wolves".

How wrong I was.

The non-fiction account of "Porcupine" gives Kantner both more and less latitude with characters and stories than "Wolves". In "Porcupine" he provides us the true backstory to the amazing story-line in "Wolves", in many ways both more satisfying and more interesting than his fiction. Here we can read the real-life version of living in a sod igloo as a youngster, the real people that inspired the cast of characters in "Wolves, real landscapes and interactions with them. After reading "Shopping for Porcupine" I had to re-read "Ordinary Wolves" and found it even better the second time.

The photos are stunning, but I like the writing more as Kanner's words convey non-visual emotions that photos miss.

I look forward to his next book, whatever it might be, as his bush upbringing offers us all a simultaneously fresh but surprisingly shared perspective on all things.

"Shopping for Porcupine" is well worth $30, if for no other reason than it will prompt this wonderfully gifted artist to write still more.

Shopping for Porcupine is a beautiful, thought-provoking book that defies genre.
It is more than an autobiography of Seth Kantner, who was born and reared in a tiny, mouse-infested sod igloo on a bluff above the Kobuk River in arctic Alaska. It is also a collection of essays and articles Kanter has published elsewhere. The result is a wonderful story of a boy growing into a man in one of the remotest places on earth, but it is also a glimpse into the lives and society of old-time Alaskans, both native and white, and how the 21st Century is warping the old ways. The book is a passionate statement about an environment in flux and in peril. It is also a love letter to an impossibly beautiful, brutal and unforgiving land.
Kantner's splendid photographs add greatly to his colorful and sensitive stories about pioneers, trappers, hunters, and the creatures he encounters in the far north. The striking images and Kantner's own gentle humor and insight seem to soften the often hard realities he writes about.
After reading Kantner's excellent novel, Ordinary Wolves, and this non-fiction work, Shopping for Porcupine, it became apparent that to call one fiction and the other real is plain silly. Kantner tells the truth in both. Sometimes his truth is hard to take, as when he describes "hunters" who fly onto the remote tundra to slaughter wolves from speeding snowmobiles. Sometimes it is honest and endearing as when Kantner flies with his wife and daughter to a gala event in New York City to receive a prestigious literary award and the best he has to wear are clean jeans and a Banana Republic T-shirt.
Kantner is modest about his own skills and toughness. He is more giving, more complimentary to others. The result is that Seth Kantner is a man you want to know better. A good beginning is to read his books, visit his website. You'll be glad you did.

--Dave Gilbert

My 11 year old son is very interested in large cities with lots of skyscrapers so when I found this book it was perfect for him. The book contains very interesting historical photos of each city as well as an incredibly beautiful 2-page full color aerial photo. The aerial view is a sight to behold and provides a view of each city that the average person would never see. The recap at the bottom of each photo provides terrific information on buildings and items of interest shown in the photo. This is a great addition to our library of geographic books and one that we will enjoy for many years to come. So what was his favorite Christmas gift? It was the Skylines of the World book by this same author.

The oversized, oblong shape of this lovely title will challenge library shelves but lends to display: perfect for the panoramic scenes of American skylines which is the focus of Skylines: American Cities Yesterday And Today. The world's first skyscraper in Chicago was finished in 1885, but skyscrapers have graced almost every large American city since. This celebration provides modern photos of almost fifty such skyscrapers, adding more from around the world and providing historical photos and maps for each city. Personal travel and research combined with these original shots makes Skylines a unique and important contribution to American architectural, city planning, and urban studies.

I've always been fascinated to old black-and-white photos, especially ones that show growth over time. The book Skylines: American Cities Yesterday and Today by M. Hill Goodspeed is a visually stunning look at some major American cities, both early in their history, and how they look now. The only drawback to the book... it is *really* heavy! :)

Contents:
The Northeast: New York; Hartford; Providence; Boston; Philadelphia; Pittsburgh; Baltimore; Washington, D.C.
The Southeast: Richmond; Charlotte; Charleston; Atlanta; Savannah; Jacksonville; Tampa; Orlando; Miami
The Midwest: Chicago; Milwaukee; Madison; Minneapolis; St. Paul; Detroit; Cleveland; Columbus; Cincinnati; Indianapolis; St. Louis; Kansas City
South Central: Louisville; Nashville; Memphis; Little Rock; New Orleans; Dallas; Austin; San Antonio; Houston
The West: Denver; Salt Lake City; Las Vegas; Phoenix; San Diego; Los Angeles; San Francisco; Portland; Seattle; Honolulu

Most of the city chapters cover two double-page spreads. The first two page combination gives a short history of the city, along with a number of black-and-white photos covering an earlier time in the city's history. There's usually at least one panoramic black-and-white picture showing an early version of the skyline, as well as a hand-drawn map of the city, complete with minute details common to those early days of mapmaking. Each of the photos has detailed captions that tell the viewer what they're seeing. Turning the page gets you a full color panoramic picture of the current skyline, quite often shot at twilight or night. The effect is a beautiful image of the city in all its splendor. This color image is also annotated with a guide to all the major building that show up.

This is the true definition of a coffee-table book... one that you'd place on your coffee-table for viewing by guests. But in this case, you'll need the coffee-table just to hold the thing! It's a foot and a half wide, and a foot high, with a weight tipping the scales over seven pounds. The paper weight is heavy and high-quality, so you're assured of getting beautiful images. Just don't expect to read this in bed propped up on your chest. I tried... it doesn't work. :)

the book was great the skylins shots are great in the book and my city jacksonville florida is in there the pictures are amazing i recommend the book to anyone who takes an interest in cities and their skylines

I think the first thing to say about this book is the huge size. Almost eighteen inches wide with forty-eight city panoramas that open up to thirty-three inches wide so you'll rarely have seen your downtown in such a dramatic format. Enhanced all the more because many of the shots are taken at dusk or night which brings out the kaleidoscope of lights typical of city centers.

All of the contemporary photography was done by James Blakeway who seems to specialize in aerial photography of the world's cities. Check out the Blakeway Worldwide Panoramas website to see a whole load more photos and read how Blakeway achieves these eye-popping images.

I would be happy if the book just contained the forty-eight city center panoramas but there is a spread preceeding each image that has text and several historical illustrations to reveal the background of each place. The text and picture captions are rather generalized (how can anyone sum up a city in a few hundred words?) and I thought it might have been helpful to include a short bibliography about each city. The panoramas have their own captions which name the main buildings and fortunately someone had the good sense to include a simple skyline drawing with the buildings numbered.

One of the strenghts of the book, I thought, was the concentration on downtown rather than high aerial shots. San Francisco is shot like this (and the camera angle makes it look remarkably like a version of Sim City) with the buildings stretching away from you but if you cover the downtown buildings it looks very much like any other city. The downtowns of so many places in the book are quite unique: New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Memphis, Dallas or Atlanta for instance. It is the skyscraper, I think, that makes most of the panoramas so fascinating.

Aerail shots of America, whether cities, suburbs, country or just the untouched by man areas (and there are plenty left in the Nation) produce intriguing photos and a book I've enjoyed a lot is Alex MacLean's Designs on the Land: Exploring America From the Air with 420 wonderful photos of everything from above.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

For those who use scripture for their daily meditation this is a handy and beautiful way to pray. Well done and inspirational pictures.

Imcredible photography! A book perfect for a gift in this difficult year. Since September 11 we are all taking a fresh look at priorities, faith, and family. The pictures and thoughts in this book help to quietly focus on what is important in life.

A wonderful combination of visual imagery, inspirational verse, and thoughtful comment. Interactive opportunity for personal reflections and meditation. An unusual format that is captivating, enjoyable, thought provoking, and peaceful. A perfect Christmas gift for young and old alike.

It's November, but I already have my New Year's resolution. It is to start the year 2002 with journal work using The Songs of Nature as my guide.

I have enjoyed reading and re-reading this book. The photographs are outstanding images of the beauty that surrounds us in nature and the author's meditations depict so well our human awareness of our dependence on the Almighty.Very worthwhile reading.

Let me explain. It's not that this book isn't filled with photographs. It is. And they're not bad photos either. The premise is to show candid shots of "stars" when they're not being filmed theatrically. Liz Taylor in full dress costume, practicing golf. Yul Brenner learning how to dance. The stolen moments part is seeing the people behind the famous characters they play both on the screen and often for the celebrity fixated fans. I think this is the PERFECT book for a movie buff. Or somene who loves celebrities. Or perhaps a fan who hasn't quite got the clue that actors are just that, actors and not a larger-than-life character or hero. But if you're looking for amazing photos or shots that inspire you to find a cure for the common cold, this ain't the book.

I advice everyone to take a look at this book,which represents very well the off of cinema,very interesting,beautiful piuctures chosen,recommended for all!!
thank you,Marc brincourt,for giving us a non-yet seen book!!!!

If you like the photos of movies ,thýs book is yours,
ýf you have this book you can know all the things of the actors when they aren't playing.if you have this book,perhaps there are a lot of photos of your favourite actor . bravo for
Marc Brincourt :-)

If you like the photos of movies ,thýs book is yours,
ýf you have this book you can know all the things of the actors when they aren't playing.if you have this book,perhaps there are a lot of photos of your favourite actor . bravo for
Marc Brincourt :-)

If you like the photos of movies ,thýs book is yours,
ýf you have this book you can know all the things of the actors when they aren't playing.if you have this book you,perhaps there are a lot of photos of your favourite actor . bravo for
Marc Brincourt :-)

... wonderful condition. A pleasure to deal with.

I originally ordered this book because my husband is distantly related to the photographer and found it to be a beautiful collection of Edward Steichen's work. His subjects run from flowers to sculptors and include several presidents and movie stars. Anyone interested in photography would enjoy this book.

Why would a 26-year-old marry an 81-year-old? I don't know, but I am glad for the insight Joanna Steichen provided to Edward Steichen's personality and what his work was about. Her writing style is insightful, poetic, and surprisingly candid about Steichen, both his good side (his work) and his bad side (his person). She did a good job of interpreting what he was trying to do, how he was trying to do it, and the `language' he was using in his props, lighting, angles, and so forth. There was almost a subliminal language going on in some of the photographs that she clues us in on. Also, it was special seeing people like Gary Cooper, Charlie Chaplin, and Franklin Roosevelt when they were in their prime. It was also a treat seeing the great sculptor August Rodin, composer Sergio Rachmaninoff, and Conductor Leopold Stokowski since I'm a fan of all three.

Although I am more into art than photography I find that Steichen was a 20th century giant of a photographer, and an artist, as such, his own right. He is well-known for his portraits of famous people, his wartime work in both of the World Wars, his contributions to the Family of Man exhibits, his creative cityscapes of New York, and his innovative advertising work. He was very big for most of the 20th century and even did some good work in the 1890's. Some of his work you have probably seen before, and you'll notice this as you go through his book.

Enormously gifted and innovative, he seemed to care little about anything but his work. He considered himself the surrogate son of August Rodin, the scupture of The Thinker, who was an impossible man who did improbably great work. Too much of Rodin seemed to rub off on him, but the greatness of Steichen's work can't be denied. It's important to separate the artist from his art. I did, and I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

This beautifully printed book is obviously a labor of love on all sides. With text by the widow of Edward Steichen, the book is unique in that it weaves together the extraordinary photographs of this great American master with an intriguing story which is more memoir than dull academic treatise. While Edward Steichen's beautifully reproduced photographs provide a feast for the eyes, Joanna Steichen tells his story and looks at their life together honestly, bringing to her text the heart and soul of a true writer. She discusses the groupings of photographs from her own experiences as the young wife of a much older, great man, and she shares her memories of their sometimes difficult marriage. Even more extraordinary is that all of this is so accessible to a general audience, which is generally not the case with most art books. What this reviewer finds particularly interesting is the way the book is laid out -- in chapters with titles like "Of Woods and Water," "Forces of Nature," and "Challenging Women," instead of by dull academic chronology or by technical photographic process. In sum, this is really two books -- an art book and a memoir -- in one, and although this may confuse professional reviewers in the national press it should not dissuade readers. Put it on your holiday list if you want to give a very special gift to a very special person. For photographers, of course, the book is a "must buy." Edward Steichen was a true American original who lived a long and exciting life to the fullest, and was a pioneer in his field. "Steichen's Legacy" will interest almost everyone.

This book belongs in the home of everyone who loves great photography.

" . . . [S]eeing led to understanding and understanding could transform suspicion, hatred and violence into tolerance, peace and love." This was Steichen's vision for his oeuvre, as reported by his widow, Joanna, in this rewarding retrospective and series of biographical essays. In keeping with that vision, Ms. Steichen has developed this wonderful volume in the following way: "I want the reader to have optimal opportunity to experience the images simply as images." In that, she was remarkably successful. She graciously acknowledges the aid of George Tice, the last of those who printed for Steichen, in preparing the volume.

Each page is gorgeously reproduced in superb size, on great paper, and with thoughtful care concerning the sharpness, lack of sharpness, or contrast required to express Steichen's intent for each image.

Before going further, let me mention that Steichen's work does include female nudity. There are few of these images, and only one is potentially challenging for the viewer. If such things bother you, skip that section of the book called "the Body" or skip this volume.

If you are not familiar with Steichen's personal life, you should know that he and his wife first met when he was 80 and she was 28, when Carl Sandburg, Steichen's brother-in-law, introduced them. They soon fell in love and married. Steichen then drafted her to be his personal assistant, and she became very familiar with his work and collaborators. When he died, he left his negatives to her for use and disposition, and directed that she also decide who was to get his prints. From seeing the care in selecting images and the quality of their reproduction in this volume, he chose well in leaving his artistic legacy to her.

The intent of her selection process was to provide an overview of his life's work, so you get a combination of the famous and the seldom-seen here. These are grouped around themes as follows: Next of Kin (his family); of Woods and Water (landscapes), Reverie (foggy romantic images); Powerful People; Challenging Women; Style; the Body; Artists; Early Color Process; Writers; on the Road; Masters of Music; New York City; Glamour; Scale and Symbol; Improvisation; Forces of Nature; On Stage; and Flowers.

The essays about these sections contain personal anecdotes that are more revealing about his life than his work. But for those who do not know his technique, there is an overview to explain his interests and methods. For example, the connections to painting, abstraction, and setting a mood are well established. The many luminescent images against a dark background, shaded by fuzziness, are explained by his experience with mist on the lens later aided by deliberate use of saliva and indirect lighting.

My favorites of the images here include:

With Studio Camera (self-portrait), 1917

With Photographic Paraphernalia (self-portrait), 1929

Theodore Roosevelt, The White House, 1908

Walter Winchell, New York, 1929

The Cat -- Gloria Swanson, 1924

Mary Steichen, 1917

Shoes, 1927

Douglass Lighters, 1928

Thumbtacks, 1926-1927

Nude Torso, c. 1934

Dana's Hands and Grasses, Long Island, New York, 1923

The First Cast of Brancusi's "Bird in Space", c. 1925

Carl Sandburg, Umpawaug Farm, 1939

Irving Berlin, 1932

George Gershin, 1927

Martha Graham (4), New York, 1931

Noel Coward, New York, 1932

Leslie Howard, 1933

Joan Crawford, 1932

Spiral Shell, France, c. 1921

Ed Wynn, New York, 1930

Katherine Hepburn, 1933

Having seen all of these images, I came away most impressed with those rare occasions when personal character, abstraction, and shadows could be combined into the same image. The results are simply breathtaking.

Steichen has significance in three ways for the modern viewer. He pioneered in making photography an "art" rather than pure representation. These pioneering efforts established many of the major methods used by photographers since. Second, he was an important curator of photography, and he championed many careers. Third, he was remarkably talented in capturing personality, much like the great portrait painters.

The essays add a fourth dimension to Steichen that is well worth our attention. What is it like to be an acknowledged genius in your field? What are the challenges? What are the pitfalls?

"He was full of contradictions." "Meeting the daily needs of individuals was not his concern." "His capacity for connecting truly and intensely operated on a grander scale." In this way, Steichen reminds one of many great people who withdraw into their work. Compared to Einstein, his withdrawal was not nearly as complete. Compared to Picasso, he did not actually torment his family deliberately. But, it is clear that his career came before all else.

"Steichen had a conscience and room for compasssion, but he also had an urgent, lifelong mandate for accomplishment." He comes across as the archetype of the modern self-absorbed striver, and his example bears witnessing. After a rough session in which the author suffered tough treatment from her husband, friends often took her aside to reassure her that everyone eventually found their lives enriched by knowing Steichen. Ms. Steichen echoes that advice in this volume also. So ultimately, the picture you get is of someone where the heart ultimately overcame the obsession with work and self-expression, but not without creating pain for others along the way.

After you finish enjoying this delightful group of great images, I suggest that you think about your own life. Where may you have an obsession that causes pain to those around you? How can you change that approach to create more joy and happiness instead, for others and for yourself? If you are not sure, perhaps the outstanding book, Relationship Rescue, and The Relationship Rescue Workbook can help you.

Accomplish with all your heart!

Awesome collection of photos. I started collecting the same a few years ago and am SO glad I found this book b4 it got "rare"... because it will get "rare".
The pics are HIGH quality on good, heavy paper. The construction is strong and the jacket is nice, as well.
The aquisition was very smooth with quick delivery. I'm very pleased with this purchase ;-)

This book was interesting, but I was hoping for more pictures from the 1800s. The muscle men presented had a good selection of body building pioneers and famous names. The pictures of everyday guys strutting themselves, while providing a time capsule of men feeling proud about their bodies, didn't offer anything outstanding in the way of physical development. If you are looking for links in the chain of what would later become beefcake photos and pioneering body builders, you'd like this book. If you are looking for a definitive history with more pictures of Sandow, Atlas, Joe Weider, and Steve Reeves you might be dissapointed.

I was really, really impressed with this book about Strongman covering the period from the 1880's to the 1950's. The reason I was so impressed with these vintage photos of strongman and those aspiring to be strongman is that a lot of these classic photos have not been seen before. This is a fascinating selection of rare cabinet cards and studio portraits by some of the most famous photographers of that time period. You have your Herculean types such as Tony Sansone (my all time favorite), Eugene Sandow, Jack Lalanne, and many others. But what's really fascinating is all the amateur photos & snapshots of anonymous muscular young men that Robert has brought together for us in his book.

There is a very personal foreword by Jules Bacon, Mr. America 1943, who was one of the most handsome & muscular young men of his time. The introduction by Robert Mainardi is a fascinating account of why he started collecting & how his obsession began as a young man.

Any collector of physique photography should not miss having this volume in their collection. It's a must. Council Oak Books has done a beautiful job in printing this book, from the design of the book to the clear photo reproductions. If you like this book be sure and buy Council Oak Books first vintage photo book called "Sailor." Another beautiful book for your enjoyment and collection. Both are highly recommended.

With this book, Robert Mainardi has produced a marvelous and valuable addition to the history of photography and bodybuilding. This slim (but fully packed, nonetheless) volume contains many priceless physique photographs from the late 19th century to the 1950s-60s. Every page astonishes with the variety and quality of the collection that Mainardi has put together over many years. Some photographs are humorous (to our 21st century minds), some seriously dramatic and beautiful, but all are worth more than one look. One or two of the photos are bitter-sweet in the way they capture an earlier, more innocent and trusting time. Mainardi has written an essay, an introduction of sorts, that lays the foundation for why he collects, as well as some background on the field and people in question. I can't recommend this book srongly enough; it is great to own, and great to give as a gift to someone with an interest in photography, bodybuilding or history.

Mainardi's picture book is more than the vintage beefcake photos I'd expected. His introductory essay is a wonderful personal reflection on the power these images had on him as a boy, shaping both his erotic and aesthetic sensibilities for the rest of his life. In that context, the photos become a kind of study in the masculine ideal; any gay man -- and perhaps many straight men and women -- can find in them the sparks to light up distant sense memories and the dim images we buried in our dreams as children: everything from real body builders to guys like our fathers, uncles and brothers, hamming it up in front of a camera on the beach. A really great little book.

Stunning photos, endless information into the true behaviors of horses. If you want to learn about how horses truly behave, think and act, this is the book you need to read.

"Such is the Real Nature of Horses" was a surprise 12th birthday present from my uncle - the first "grown up" horse book I ever owned. I treasure it still. It has survived 23 years of love and appreciation. Not only are the quality of Vavra's images awe-inspiring, capturing the grace and majesty of the horse; but the book is well titled. It has taught me many valuable things about equine behaviour. Watching any group of horses interacting freely, I see so much more than if I hadn't owned this book. Get it... you have to.

No one else photographs the horse like Robert Vavra and this book provides you with a double dose of wow factor - beautiful photographs and excellent text and photographic stories.

There are several books out there claiming to tell you about horse social structures and body language but this is the classic (I've had my copy for at least 15 years now) and the best. Vavra writes and photographs with a naturalists eye for detail and information while allowing the photographers art and ability to display beauty to shine through in the finished plates.

The book follows the lives of several bands of horses on the Carmargue providing an enthralling insight into the lives of feral horses, which easily translates to our domestic companions.

The book is formatted so that various behaviours and traits such as aggression, play, vocalisation etc etc are put into chapters with photos and explainations showing the variations of each behaviour between adolescents, babies and adults or mares, bachelors and stallions for instance.

A brilliant coffee table book, an excellent guide for horsemen and women interested in equine behaviour and body language.

"Such is the Real Nature of Horses" was a surprise 12th birthday present from my uncle - the first "grown up" horse book I ever owned. I treasure it still. It has survived 23 years of love and appreciation. Not only are the quality of Vavra's images awe-inspiring, capturing the grace and majesty of the horse; but the book is well titled. It has taught me many valuable things about equine behaviour. Watching any group of horses interacting freely, I see so much more than if I hadn't owned this book. Get it... you have to.

I'm quite sure that Vavra was a horse in another lifetime. His photos are to horses what Herb Ritts' were to Janet Jackson and the countless people Ritts immortalized on film.

Robert, if I weren't married, I'd run away with you just so I could be there when you see what you see through your lens. For horse lovers, nature lovers or photography lovers, nobody captures the power and majesty of these creatures like Vavra.
Give this book to someone you love and wrap it in the finest paper and tie it with a velvet bow. It would be a treasure to receive this or any Vavra book.

Just brilliant.

A series of photographs and related diagrams & montages about the US landscape - every one worth sitting over and considering in detail

A book I come back to time and time again

I always enjoy graphic design, but this one integrates intelligent visual graphic representation and it portraits site/landscape analysis.
Not your usual blueprint survey, but delightful new way of documentation.

This book is incredible, the essays, photography, map drawings and descriptions really changed the way I looked at the world around me. This book was used as our text book for a Senior Project class in design school.

Perceptive and conciousness raising while an aesthetic visual pleasure. An unforgettable book.

This book will change the way you look at and think about landscape. Technically, it's a landscape architecture book, and the essays that deal with that subject are excellent. James Corner is one of the best landscape architects/theorists around, and his writing is though-provoking, lucid and enjoyable to read. He draws an wonderful comparison between this work and Le Corbusier's sightseeing flights over North Africa in the 1930's. But without a doubt, the reason to buy this book are the photographs that document the unexpected beauty that arises out of the interaction between man and nature. The incongruities of landscape, juxtaposed against the linear certainty of the Land Ordinance Act grid, farm plots and other common interventions make for stunning photography.

There are also little subplots, such as creative reuses of already built spaces (tennis courts as parking lots & football field yard lines over a baseball diamond), and the similarity of totally unrelated natural forms (who knew that from 7,000 feet, cracked pond ice looks like microscopic images of streptococcal bacteria?).

There are dozens of other little thoughts I could include, and one of most remarkable things about this book is that the photogrpahs allow the reader to draw on his or her own knowledge to make connections and interpertations. There's no right or wrong way to see these things, which makes it universally rewarding and enjoyable.

One of the best David Hockney books.
A must have if you are interested in his photo montage method aka joiner method.

i had read it before and i just had to have it, its an amazing book even if you dont know david hockneys work, the book will make you fall in love with him and his art

I have been a fan of David Hockney's for many many years and was delighted to find this book. He writes in an understated, easy way about his art and about modern art in general.

Two of the sections were particularly interesting: "Art versus the Art World" and "The Power of Art".

In the book, Hockney explained how places and his personal experiences have influenced his art over the years. He talks about how he is incorporating photography into his work and feels that it is an artist's responsibility to be open to new forms of expression. He says he is an "artist who is always working". I think he is always experimenting too, with different methods of expressing his artistic vision.

He said he asssumes that if he is interested in painting something, others will be interested as well. I loved this viewpoint....in other words, he creates for himself.

This was a lovely book---especially all of the GORGEOUS color reproductions which traced the Hockney's evolution and his journeys.

Fortunately for us, Chronicle Books continues to grace the art bookstores with superb and affordable monographs on art that make a difference. In this completely enchanting, richly illustrated book David Hockney conducts a conversation with us, the reader, sharing his unique and genteel ideas on how he sees and hence composes the paintings and drawings and photographic montages and sets of operas that have so enriched the art world since he first began his long career.

Hockney's writing style is quietly warm, honest, clever, whimsical and very informed. In this truly magnificent volume he is sharing not only his forays into experimental art (his influences from Picasso, Bacon, and the many MANY illustrious friends who fill his life), he also allows us to understand why he experiments with photography (his explosive yet intimate collages of Polaroid rooms of conversing friends are unique to Hockney), his manner of viewing huge spaces and then parceling them onto paper or canvas in a manner that allows us to see vistas not available to the isolated glance, his still lifes, his sketches and portraits of studio visitors - the volume of work is staggering.

Another fine discussion revolves around is spectacular sets for opera (Tristan und Isolde, Turandot, The Magic Flute, A Rake's Progress, Die Frau Ohne Schatten) - these coming from an artist who is almost completely without hearing making music visual!

For all lovers of Hockney's work as well as for those who want to understand why he so very popular, this is one of the best introductions available about the man and his work! Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, July 06

This is an interesting book because it explains the discovery of ways of seeing, and in the process of explaining alters the way the reader sees art.

The challenge of pop art or abstract art is that to the uninitiated it seems gimmicky, and one often goes 'you've got to be kidding?' But with this wonderful exploration of the different ways that art and photography are ways of capturing a point of view, not a reproduction of a point of view. And more importantly, how Mr. Hockney comes to these expressions of point of view you get a glimpse of not only an interpretation of art, but the process of art. I love words and the essays are as magnificent as his art in their clarity and honesty. The section on his photo montages are amazing.