Photography Books

This book plays with reality, is beautiful, is provocative (in certain ways), and encourages revisits.

So different, so wonderful, so thought-provoking. This book of photographs is amazing. Each photo tells a story, or many stories, or creates an emotion that's hard to pin down. This is a large bound book, of high quality. I'm astounded at the price. This is truly a book to keep for life. I took it to work, and people lined up to look at it, one co-worker offered to buy it from me for $10 more than I paid for it :) (no way!)

Recently on PBS, I saw a small clip of the collaboration work of the photographer (who is also the subject in the photographs) and his painter wife. The artistic creation of staging and dark room manipulations were something no one produces but these two. Results are reminiscent of a strange dream or turn of the century photography of catastrophic Earth events. I had to find a book of their work. The first books I found were $300. but fortunately found a much better priced one. I not only wanted it for myself and friends, but also to hand it down to one of my grandkids. Thank you Mr/Mrs. ParkHarrison for your unusual vision and I hope to see your future productions.

This is one of the weirdest photography books I have ever read...and enjoyed looking!

The author drives the reader through an interesting dream-like world created meticulously just for the shots in this book.

All these stupendous images generate lots of meditations and new ideas not only related to the topic of photography but to the way we experience life.

Wow. That's how I'm going to start this off. My first inkling was to give the book four stars, you know, seem objective to the reader, maybe have a bigger influence. The truth is objectivity has nothing to do with this book. It is full of magic, suprise, wonder: nothing but true subjectivity. That is where its beauty lies, like a receiving a small bit of mail from an unknown sender, each page is a tale for you to tell, as well as ParkeHarrison. By far my favorite photography book, second only to Rocky Schenk, Photographs. Highly Recommended, also beautifully bound and LARGE. Take it from this poor college student, well worth the money.

This is an inspirational book, from the cover shot of Tiptoe Through the Tulips through the painted cars, the assemblage cars, and the more mutated vehicles. Art Cars are a strangely friendly version of Folk Art. Don't they put a smile onto your face when you see one driving past?

The earlier Harrod Blank book, Wild Wheels, ties in with the Wild Wheels movie on art cars, and this one is a continuation of that book with newer art cars and some helpful construction tips for your own art car.

All that have seen my copy have loved it. Hardly anyone could view this book and not smile. Too bad it's now gone out of print, but there are other wonderful books and a brand new movie by Harrod Blank.

I visited my niece in Seattle, and she KNOWS one of the art car owners, so showed me the book. What fun!!! I am buying it today!

One of the most joyous picture books ever published. Put a copy on your coffee table at home or your desk at work, then sit back and wait for your visitors to start chortling. It's impossible to look at just one page!

This book is just a blast -- it is so fun and inspirational. It made me happy that I own a crappy old car, because now I can run out and paint it without worrying about the resale value.

if you are looking at a way to make the ordinary special, looking at the images contained in Atget definitely intrigues your imagination. details and compostion place the viewer in the scene, an active particpant.

Eugene Atget is known to everyone, perhaps not by name in all instances, but at least by the images of Paris and environs that grace all manner of books, essays, brochures, museums, art collections, and postcards throughout the world. At the time of his death in 1927 his enormous output of images was archived and has subsequently been studied, purchased and shared with exhibitions too numerous to mention. Yet in this fine book the essence of Atget the observer is appreciated as well as any publication of the many about the pioneering photographer, a man who served as an important bridge from studio formality of the art to entering the human realm of images of people on the streets of Paris and the surrounding areas.

Each of the 100 tritone and 5 duotone photographs in this elegant volume is accompanied by an insightful comment by the superb writer John Szarkowski who also happens to be the former director of the Department of Photography at the MOMA in New York. Rarely have photographic images been so enhanced by the written word: Szarkowski is in complete synchrony with the vision of Atget. Here are images of simple people of early 20th century Paris, images of streets, still lifes, woods, streams, rivers great and small, each captured with immediacy and yet with timelessness.

For those looking for an affordable introduction of Atget's work for the library, this is certainly the volume of choice. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, March 06

Now that it is so cheap, don't miss this great book! Excellent prose by Szarkowski and beautiful pictures by a master... hard combination to beat.

This book is another gift from a great writer and observer, an homage to Atget, to photography, to art and to Western civilization. For anyone who pretends to be a photographer or to love Art, it is a joy to share Szarkowski's easy erudition, one or two pages at a time.

Atget showed us the axioms of photography and axioms cannot be explained by analysis. The test of an Atget, Bach, or Cezanne, is that it is impossible to find the source of their revelation and impossible not to find their influence in future artists.

"Good pictures are not explained by words...With exceptional good luck criticism might with words construct meanings that are different from but consonant with the meanings of pictures. Such constructs of words might possibly guide us toward the neighborhoods where pictorial meanings live.", he says in this book. (Please, if you are an art historian or critic, take this pledge!)

Thus Szarkowski tours the photographs he has selected and writes a thought or two somehow connected to each one - sometimes a revelation, often a question. Each page of writing stands alone and will engage the reader in a conversation with the author and the photographer. Many times Szarkowski puts us somewhere behind the camera a hundred years ago, or on a bridge in Paris 600 years ago. He really brings Atget to life by putting us in his time and place.

There are plenty of revealing facts stashed throughout the writing. Szarkowski talks of the influence of Atget on Weston, Walker Evans, Winogrand, and others and leaves us to recognize the Atget in Cartier-Bresson, Dorothea Lange, and ourselves. He mentions just the relevant technical and biographical details.

He shows examples of how Atget handled Time,the essence of photography. As he wrote in "Photography Until Now" about Atget, "Perhaps from the practice of looking attentively and repeatedly at the same thing from different vantage points and in different lights he came to see that ...one tree, or one reflecting pool, was never twice the same, and would therefore last as a subject as long as one's concentrated attention. With this realization he became, surely not intentionally, a modern artist."

The reflecting pools and trees are in this book along with the more familiar Parisian architecture. Different views of the same subjects are also in other books such as Berenice Abbott's "The World Of Atget". Szarkowski thus, enriches the literature on Atget, giving meaning to many of the published mindless catalogs of his photographs.

Szarkowski shows another reason Atget is a modern artist. His work is meticulously constructed in the same cultural elements as the works of his more famous contemporary French painters and sculptures. There are no accidents and no mistakes in his work. The result is a richness that reveals something new every time we look at it.

The same is true of this book by Szarkowsi. I've read it three times. It is a masterpiece, "...seductively and deceptively simple, wholly poised, reticent, dense with experience, mysterious and true." To use the words Szarkowski wrote of Atget in Looking At Photographs.

Again, John Szarkowski takes us by the hand and leads us into the photographs of Eugene Atget, as through the magic of a looking glass. In these writings, on a selection of photographs from the first quarter of the 20th century, in his historically aware and individual way, Szarkowski instructs on how to read a photograph by doing so himself. We not only see into the environs of Paris through the eyes of the eclectic, determined and tender Atget, but also through the eyes and the keen, attentive mind of Szarkowski, who writes as though he lives inside these pictures, and tends them, and the photographer, with great devotion.

This edition is set up by the previous 4 volume study, The Work of Atget, by Maria Morris Hambourg and John Szarkowski, Museum of Modern Art, 1985. But this new book comes from a persistent, deep seam miner, one who knows that what it is about these photographs is so fertile, they can be studied throughout one's life, and still give more.

How rich is the mind that can bring another mind to light? Would it be bearable if everything in life could be keyed into focus, for us too busy and bothered to pay attention, by a poet as revelatory as Szarkowski? When considering entree des jardins, 1921-22, he says, "except occasionally, as (for example) during revolutions, the French have managed very well to sublimate the periodic human tendency to behave violently toward one's fellow human men, and have directed these impulses toward their trees", you cannot help but love the gardener who built the gate here, the photographer for seeing it, and Szarkowski, for bringing it to our attention in this way. He tells you what is on the menu, who lived in the house, how the hotel got its name, who built it, what may have motivated them to sculpt a Dionysus over a doorway, what member of the court of Louis the XIV was cast to live where, what other photographer may have attempted to photograph the same scene, and sometimes, what led Atget there.

The book is a beautiful masterpiece, and an accomplishment worthy of a life spent looking deeply. If you love (really looking at) photographs, you should consider your shelves incomplete without it.

It's pretty incredible that a book could be so short and so effective. This was used as the 'textbook' for a graduate-level cinematography course I took at USC, and it was all we needed to complement our hands-on work. I wish every beginner photographer/filmmaker was *required* to read this, it would save them from so many common mistakes...

This was a requirement at my classes when I went to USC film school. Everyone loved it. I knew nothing about camerawork, composition or the basics, and this book just taught the essential tools and tricks to get started. If you're interested in making movies or camerawork, this book is your first stop. I loved it so much, it inspired me to write The Bare Bones Book of Screenwriting

Unlike many training books The Bare Bones Camera Course for Film and Video does not attempt to suggest what camera you should buy, nor does it tell you how to shoot Aunt Alice's 80th birthday party. This book, in its 89 pages, is a beautiful example of a subject that has been pared down to the essential information needed to learn it----and the subject is how to operate your video camera to get the best images you can.

The book's table of contents lists eight sections:

· Basics (such as camera functions, lenses, depth of field)
· Composition
· Basic Sequence
· Screen Direction
· Camera Moves
· Montages
· Lighting
· Doing It (how to plan for a shoot)

Each section is covered concisely, and there are over 200 simple, but effective, black and white line art illustrations to accompany the topic being discussed. This book is perfect for the person who wants to concentrate on improving their video camera operating skills.

This is one of the simplest, and best books I've ever seen for beginner filmmakers. It is able to very clearly explain complicated concepts, without writing any more than necessary. It's a very slender book, and a very quick read, and well worth your time.

This book is the easiest book on the subject to understand. Allmost anyone could understand this book. It gives you the same information as some of those long 300 page books that try to sound scholarly but just end up sounding pretensious. This book is the complete basics, so for anyone who is looking for more in depth stuff this isnt the right book for you.

This isn't an Idiot's guide to photography. It is a well written book on the physical and chemical phenomena around picture tacking, an eye opener on quirky peculiarities of the media for photographers (more scientifically minded people may feel it just brushes the surface of many subjects). It is a good read, but as with text books, if you're not well awake, you'll have to go through a topic several times!

Most of the emphasis is on film, with a last chapter added on to cover digital. I reckon even strictly digital shooters may profit from reading it.

OK nearly fully understands photography. This book goes far beyond the "for dummies" overview of the medium. It even goes far beyond the "Beyond Basic Photgraphy" books I've read. This book, along with Ansel Adams' The Negative are the best instruction you can receive on the technical aspects of photography, digital or film. It does include chapters on film and chemicals which are becoming less and less popular though still useful for some. But it also describes light, light measurement, focal plane vs. leaf shutter operation- you'll understand why an SLR has a high flash sync speed limit of 1/250" while point and shoots as well as Hasselblads can sync flash with any shutter speed. You'll understand lens optical performance terms. You'll fully understand film characteristic curves (now dynamic range characteristics of digital sensors). Worth the money. (Note this review is based on the first edition which was hardcover.)

All the technical details of photography have been covered. The review questions at the end of the each chapter are helpful too. I feel one can surely save a lot of film after reading this book. And there are quite a few b&w photogrpahs which are quite interesting.

This is a rather comprehensive introduction to the theory of photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Rochester (NY) is of course where the headquarters of the Eastman Kodak Company is located...

Note the word "theory" above. That the volume contains an appendix on the calculation of basic logarithms should give you a clue to the nature of this book.

This is a book about the physical properties of light, the chemical properties of photographic papers and film, and so on. It is not a book about composition and "beauty".

Photography is an art and also a craft. You would buy this book to become a better craftsman.

After a boring introduction to one of the most exciting topics I can think of (Light and Photometry) the volume covers exposure both at the picture taking (camera) stage and post-exposure (printing). These are extremely useful chapters for any photographer.

There then follows five chapters and 160 large pages whit what is essentially an introduction to science for photographers. You wouldn't guess it from the chapter headings, but you are given a brief introduction to statistics, sensiometry (excellent chapter!), optics, chemistry, and physical chemistry. Only what is relevant for photography is presented, and it is done at a fairly high-level. The level may suit you or frustrate you. The style is unlikely to excite you...

Finally, on page 213 we get practical and hands-on again with a chapter on black-and-while development followed, after a section on archival, by one of the gems of this book: tonal reproduction. Starting from the foundation it has developed over the five "boring" chapters it shows how to achieve the tonal reproduction that you want, and shows the Zone System as a practical approximation. Understanding the Zone System in this light (pun intended) will give you a great background on when and how to use it, and when not to use it: it is only an approximation.

The remaining chapters are classics and include excellent sections on visual perception, colors and color reporductions.

This book is a must read! I considered deducting a single star in the rating because the book is very focused on black-and-white photography. It does cover color, but not in the level of detail that I would have liked. In the end I decided that it would be unfair to give this book anything less than 5 stars: you should read it.

The book "Basic Photographic Materials and Processes" is separated on 16 chapters. Very useful chapters for everybody, both for beginners and professionals are chapters: 1) Light and Photometry, 4) Photographic Sensitometry, 5) Photography Optics (there is an instruction how to build the pinhole camera with exact calculation a diameter for different pinhole cameras and how make the lens testing), 8) Black and white Photographic Developments (with a paragraph about anti-foggants, special black-and-white process), 10) Tone Reproduction (Objective tone-reproduction curves for motion pictures, transparency etc., Luminance values of an outdoor scene, Flare factor, The making of negative, The making of Positive, the equations for average gradient for different quadrants of tone-reproduction diagram, ......), 11) Micro Image Evaluation (with much examples og graininess of films of different producers), 13) Filters with their influencies on different sort of films, 14) Color, 15) Color Reproduction and 16) Digital photography. This book is very useful and its content is very comprehensive one. I photograph since 1960 and I admire Mr. Anselm Adams, that is to say I very, very recommend this book for one, who has serious interest about photography and different cameras with their optics. The book has many pictures, useful tables and diagrams. (Rene Novak, studio ER67, ...)

David Morgan's new book is a celebration of the very muscular, male nude body. The theme is a day at the beach on a warm summer's day, where all the guys seem to be enjoying each other's friendship. All these photos are in black and white, some nude, lots in bathing suits, lots of nude butt shots, but no frontal nudes. There are lots of couples in erotic poses, and lots of group shots around the beach and water.

I enjoyed this new collection very much, although it seemed like an ad for 2(x)ist underwear at times, but that's fine, because that's my favorite brand. There is a companion story by Ernesto Mestre-Reed which is suppose to capture the physical joy in Morgan's photographs. I didn't see the connection that much myself. Maybe I am not in the same mind-frame as the author or didn't get the connection that was intended. I don't know. It was a cute little story, though. All in all a beautiful book, by a photographer who knows how to capture the beauty in the male nude body. If you enjoy viewing mature muscular male nudes, you should enjoy this book.

They're not really boys anymore, yet, while they are physicaly mature, they still play like boys. THE BEACH is a thrilling mix: playful pixie, Peter Pan, meets the Olympian Gods on a vast beach. I wonder if the energy and creativity of boys is why they are so widely preferred to girls around the world (especially by women).

I have to be honest--I've never understood the appeal of beaches at all. Strangely, though, I love deserts [which some friends refer to as 'a beach with no ocean']. At any rate, this book may change my mind -- regarding some beaches at least.

While I've seen David Morgan's work for years, it wasn't until the "Global Groove" CD series that I actually paid attention to the photo credits. To say that this book is a real treat for the eyes is an understatement. The photography--all black and white here-- is just magnificent. The images are sensuous, and erotic, but never 'pronographic'; sexy without ever looking 'dirty'; great studies in natural & enhanced lighting, along with the human body in top form.

The pictures are appropriately playful and despite the beefiness of the bodies, never mean, threatening or hard looking (it's that boyish thing again). Like the mythical "peter Pan", the guys in these photos seem to be forever young, and in what is such an odd example of life imitating art, it seems that every year boys get younger while observers like me, go on, inexorably aging. There is a bit of the modern here (the sexy briefs many of the guys are sporting), but really, these pictures evoke the imagery suggested in ancient Greek, Roman and other Classical art, that celebrated, rather than exploited, the beauty of a well maintained body. But unlike Tom Bianchi who recreated the Classical formalism along with the god-like male imagery, BEACH suggests that when no one is looking, even the gods are still boys inside.

While there was no doubt a lot of effort that went into posing and composing for each phot, they somehow all manage to look spontaneouos and candid. And, unlike some of the modeling photography that David Morgan has done, these pictures exude a casual friendliness that is in many ways more effective than some of the more rigidly posed and arranged ad copy [check out the 2X-ist shots].

As stunning as the photography is here, this book does have a minor flaw: the prose. It is as noteworthy for its vapidity and insipidness and thephotography is for its aesthetic beauty and strength. Perhaps that is deliberate: Morgan is a photographer, and prefers that people buy books to see the pictures, rather than to read them. But, whatever the reasons for the bad writing, it can easily be ignored, since th phtots are what this book is really all about.

Taken over a 10 day period in the waning days of summer, BEACH makes for the kind of September one will always remember. Even when all those 'boys of summer' have left, you can always relive memories through delightful books such as this..

David Morgan has secured his reputation as one of America's finest photographers---certainly our finest photographer of the male body. His photographs for the earlier book Basic Training help explain why that bestseller flew out of the stores, and although an impressionistic tale by Ernesto Mestre-Reed weaves through these pictures, they exist for themselves. These young men's sleek muscled bodies are bountiful, but it is Morgan's art that makes them beautiful. The restraint of the black-and-white plus Morgan's concern for pure form and outline is classical, and teach how beefcake can be exalted into art.

David Morgan is a talent that you must behold. Working withhim on BASIC TRAINING (available here at Amazon.com) gave me aninsider's perspective of his artistic eye and natural talent as aphotographer. David's passion is performance and in his images, andwhat images these are, is a performance. Beach is his way of showingthe world his experience of Fire Island. These men are his friendsand this unique beach environment IS paradise. BEACH is a malecandyland, a summer fling, a celebration of being out and proud and ofcommunity. I am so proud of the work David and I created together andcelebrate this new collection of his. I know that people who admiregreat black and white photography, sensual imagery and a poetic textto bind these images together, will be fully satified with this book.

Until recently i didn't think much of reincarnation, but having purchased this book, I now know for certain that I wish to come back as a few strategically placed grains of sand! Morgan is the driving force behind Basic Training, an awesome pictorial/ men's fitness book that is the perfect companion to Beaches. His work is spectacular and this offers an inside view behind the passions which drive his work. I am not a huge fan of the Speedo but man who can complain about the subject matter that fills these black stretches of nylon! Granted, full frontal nudity isn't present, but I've always been one who appreciates those "larger" details left to the imagination. Isn't it true that size is in the mind of the beholder? The accompanying story is as vivid and breathtaking as the photography. A touching tribute to the coming of age/coming out story that we have all experienced during our lives, takes on a new aquatic approach in the tale of a young man who over a summer discovers the pleasures of male love. I've seen a lot of photo books that try too hard. This one is just..... well, hard to resist for so many reasons.

If you ever thought you knew all about wood, guess again.
This book has more history, knowledge and facts than any we
have ever had. We have a copy and have given copies to approx.
6 people in the wood working business.

We own a saw mill, but my husband was so delighted with little
known facts and trivia, we just had to share it with others.

A MUST buy!!!!

Eric Sloane has written several books, filled with his wonderful drawings, looking back at times in our early American past. This is the first of his I've read, and I want to read them all. I can't say if he is accurate in his depictions, nor whether his viewpoint has full historical merit, but he shows us the value of what we've lost.

This is one of my all-time favorite books. I read it in a sitting. I'm not even all that interested in wood or building anything else that may have made me a likely fan. The writing was fantastically engaging, and the tidbits and anecdotes just kept coming. I say it's Cliff Claven writes a book because that's how I've been describing it for 10 years now - Sloane's enthusiasm and honest passion are to writing what the charm of a pure young laugh is to happiness. I've given this book away I don't know how many times, and have never heard of somebody not loving it too.

This is Sloane's best book in my opinion, but then I've been a woodworker for many years and already have "a reverence for wood". There is much to learn here, a lot of information compressed into easily understood drawings and text and a joy to study. Highly recommended for both the woodworker and anyone interested in wood and its properties and uses.

This is an easy read that yet conveys quite a bit of information. An important part are the drawings, which say more than a thousand words. It is an atmosphere book, which lets the reader understand something of the relationship between the early Americans and their material (wood). It also shows that wood allows more uses than what passes for woodworking these days.

I am a little dubious about the inclusions of trees in the back. The author appears somewhat out of his depth here (he is no Peattie, not by a long way).

this is an excelant book. The manual that cme with the XTI 400D camera is lacking in explanation on features. This book helps to clarify the settings.I would recomend this book.

If you are a newcomer to the (digital) photography world and want to have some useful advice on how to master light, shade with your EOS-400 this is the book for you. Even though it doesn't replace the reading of the users' manual, this book explains thoroughly how to use this great camera to make great pictures. The book is fully illustrated, has "screen shots" of the actual menus and is a joy to read. Highly recommended material.

This is a great book for explaining all the features and how-to's for the Canon Rebel. I have spent hours with it and have hardly scratched the surface. This book should come with the camera!

This is a very well written book and a very friendly to use format. I love picking it up to studying more about the XTi/400D camera. It's a great source of in depth knowledge to learn the capabilities of the camera. Much more user friendly than the original owner's manual. Nice diagrams and pictures to add some interest. Highly recommended!

Quick Start to both beginning, intermediate and advanced practices.
Has it all: Abbreviated easy to understand instructions, color photos and a great index.
If you don't like probing in the dark, buy this book.

This book got me into the world of macro photography. It's mainly directed to the 35mm owners, explains all the basics - DOF, depth of focus (did you know it's not the same?), diffraction and many more.. How to reverse a lens? What can you do with an extension tube? or a converter? How to correct exposure? All answers inside, illustrated with stunning photos. Under every photo in the book you can find all the required details, including the gear used. Really practical, highly recomended.

This is a good book for people interested in close-up and macro photography, its advice is helpful and clear. However, you should consider the volume by Ronan Loaec and Gilles Martin instead. It is somewhat deeper into the subject, but the main reason I recommend it is because Davies' photographs, while perfect, look amateurish compared to Martin's ones, especially judging the artistic aspects.

I must say i am completly satisfied with the book. It cover all aspects of macro fotography,hardware, lighting, aperture,flash etc. It also goes into extreme detail in explaning other factors including exposure, calculations and so on. It tells you how to do macro photo in different scenarios.
Amazon just happen to have this book in stock cheaper than my local bookstore.

I've read many books on close-up and macro photography. This one is different from the others, and perhaps the best of the lot. The stunning features of Davies' book is the author's compositional skill (the photos are fabulous), and his ability to relate the technical aspects of macro and close-up photography to the reader. Among his artfull techniques is his extensive use of wide-angle lenses for close-ups. How many other works on the subject explore this possibility? This alone justified purchasing the book for me, since I now make frequent use of the technique.

Though he doesn't mention it in the text, notice how often he under-exposes slide film by about one stop in many of his images. This is one other useful technique I picked up from the book.

I really reccomend this one.

If one wants to explore and record the beauty of close up objects, this is one anyone should have. Interesting, educational, inspirational and beautiful, this book deserves the praise it is receiving. From the author of Nature's Palette: There's More to See, Michael Impellizzeri.

The subject of this book is so gargantuan and the sheer size of the book itself reflects that. When LOOKING at this book, one will become completely overwhelmed by the incomprehensible magnitude of the known universe and the absolute specs of dust (even less!) that we are as humans inhabiting it. The pictures in this book bring tears to my eyes often upon viewing. If anything came close to being able to fathom the unfathomable power, scope, size and beauty of known life, this book is it. I cannot believe I bought it for $29.95 when it should have costed at least $100. Its worth is priceless when you consider that its actually a book that can impact you so heavily with thoughts about life, the meaning of existence, god, time, eternity, etc. to such a degree that no other book I've read can come close to.

An absolute marvel, by the shear beauty of the images of our lovely cosmos, it puts the universe in its most eloquent perspective from inter-planetary to inter-galactic scales... It's virtue I think is it's bulk, the largest book I have ever purchased, it is a front-piece in my home and a source of joy to reference and glow over its imagery and well delivered descriptions and narrative. As a citizen of the cosmos I recommend those with even a tacit interest in space exploration to grab this bargain.

I bought this at a Borders Bookstore for $19.95 while on a road trip. It was a steal! This book has phenomenal photography, is up-to-date even including the latest from MARS Rover and Spirit, explains the mysteries of the universe in an easy to understand way, just an incredible book. It is bigger then your normal coffee table book, it is quite big but the pictures are simply amazing!

Amazingly detailed pictures of the cosmos from space probes and Hubble due to quality printing and the fact that this book has some serious real estate. It measurs 17.3 x 14.2 inches!! Like a posterbook. When you think of the work and money it took to get some of these photos, especially the outer planets, you come up with millions of dollars invested to get us these shots. Very inspiring to anyone who loves sci fi since this is the real deal and what it's based on. An amazing gift we have been given to see what is out there ...so so far away.

What a beautiful volume! This book provides a view of the cosmos, with amazing photos and fine visual representations. The author notes (page 6): "The aim of this book is to help make sense of our crowded, chaotic cosmos. . . .Along the route of our celestial odyssey, we attempt not only to explain the nature of the different objects we encounter, but also try to put them in the wider context of history--their own, and that of the cosmos as a whole."

This is a massive volume, weighing a lot, with very large sized pages. This format allows much space to depict wonderful photos and representations on the cosmos. And for a pretty reasonable price at that!

The first part of the book focuses on the "Interplanetary." Each planet and other characters in the Solar system (such as the asteroids and moons) get space here. For instance, the treatment of Earth features photos that illustrate landforms, tectonics, and life. Only a few pages, but a lot of stuff is jammed into that space.

Part II is entitled "Interstellar," and focuses on the stars, with some enchanting images of the Milky Way galaxy, star clusters, nebulae, and so on. Visually stunning.

Part III, in turn, explores the "Intergalactic." The "local group" (including The Milky Way, Andromeda, Magellanic Clouds, etc.) leads this segment of the volume off. Other galaxies are also presented, with this part ending with a consideration of galactic evolution.

The fourth, and final, part of the book looks at "Deep Space and Time." This concludes with an examination of "The Big Bang" and "The End."

For those interested in where Earth fits into the larger universe, this is an interesting book. It is an accessible work; one need not be an astronomer to appreciate this. A wonderful work!