Art Architecture Photography Books

If you like Italian architecture, then you will surely enjoy this book.
The book contains many illustrations with complete descriptions. Honestly, if you like italian villas, this book is certainly a must for your private library.

This is a very informative and interesting book. The pictures though well executed are not as vivid as I expected, I don't know if it's because of the paper used or the exposer, they just don't pop vividly off the page like you often see in books of this price but they are well done and are clear. Having said that the villas covered are great and the picture ARE well executed, all the major areas of Italy are covered and the villas chosen are the best. I really did like this book, it's just that I have owned such fine books, I expect alot, but I do highly recomment the book to anyone interested the subject, it is a fine book and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I think reviewers are too harsh on this book. I have been working with photography for 20 years. I am still a beginner, and so am always interested in why a picture works or not. Reading Ang's book has helped me go back to photos I've taken with a new eye. The process helps me think through why I took the picture and why it does or doesn't work for me. Having some technical data next to his photos helps me better understand why or how a similar attempt of my own might work better. As with any book on an art form, the goal is get you moving on your own project. I would reccomend this book for that. It's also an exploration of rules and their modest place in a process.

this book is not meant to be a reference book and i think
it's clearly stated in the introduction. it is pretty easy
to read and and it has some good simple suggestions that
inspire me to take some pictures. maybe it's too simple for
some people, but like Thelonious Monk said:
"simple ain't easy"..

I found many very good essays in this book. But some of the photographs accompany the essays are out of the topics. One thing, Tom use "too" much croping the pictures to make his statement. And thus make it less Tao.

While this book is filled with some pretty pictures, none of the actual writing contains any substance that will teach you anything about tao or photography. The author just keeps making analogies to yin and yang, most of the time not explaining what he means.

I guess that if your purpose if just a pretty book for the coffee table, this might do, but then again there are so many better choices in the same price range, such as Cartier-Bresson's "A Propos De Paris."

If you are really interested in tao and photography then check out the book by Cross & Shapiro with the same title as this one. If you're just interested in improving your photography, and not necessarily about tao, then check out "Learning to See Creatively" by Peterson.

Ang spends a lot of time talking about lenses, cameras, film, etc. and not much time talking about Tao. As a result the book is rather dated (especially comments like, "You can think of digital cameras as being a little like the fast-food of photography.") His photos are Camera Club OK, but leave you asking, "If this is what Tao did for Ang, does it have anything to offer me?" If you want an introduction to Tao and photography, buy Tao of Photography: Seeing Beyond Seeing by Philippe L. Gross, S.I. Shapiro.

Since 1968 Marcus Binney and photographer Alex Starkey have been producing regular articles on the country houses and places and stately homes of Europe and the UK for Country Life magazine. This book describes the challenges of photographing these houses, both in Black and White and colour. Photos that you take for granted have a lot more art and skill involved in producing them than is readily apparent - especially if you haven't tried to take these sort of photos yourself. ( I have, and they never look as good as what you see in this book)

This is a wonderful book and covers 25 houses. The photos are a mixture of black and white and colour. All pictures are beautiful and sharp and printed on high quality glossy art paper. The houses range from Castello di Guarene in Piedmont, Palazzo Albrizzi in Venice, Schloss Bruhl in Cologne, Chateau de Bussy-Rabutin in Burgundy, Hotel de Lauzun in Paris and Skoloster in Sweden as just an example of a few.

Some of the houses/castles covered in this book only have a few photos, while others are up to 4 or 5 pages long. Sometimes you wish for colour pictures, but not all these photos were originally taken with colour film, and even when printed in black and white all these pictures are of excellent quality. The text for each house gives you some of the background history of it, but unfortunately doesn't tell you if the house is open to the public today - or even still intact with its contents (some of these photos are decades old)

Country Life magazine today continues its regular articles on the Country Houses of both the UK and Europe, and it is lovely to see the best of their archives being printed in these books. The great Country Houses of Europe are one of the great wonders of the world and usually represent some to the best of preserved artistic endeavour over the centuries if you take your time to search them out. This book stands out from the crowd for the unusual range of houses covered and as a snapshot of some of the more outstanding examples.

Thomas Padon's fine book/catalogue (made to accompany a traveling exhibition of the works included) is one to please a diverse audience: garden lovers, art history devotees, and those addicted to the art of fine photography will all find this very special book one of endless pleasure.

The concept of the garden as the subject for a photographic essay is a unique one and the artists whose works range from the old concepts to the contemporary and utilizing all manner of camera techniques are some of the best in this field. This is not simply collected garden shots but rather images of the mysteries both immediately accessible and those more occult that require time and repeated exposure to appreciate. The dialogue of the book is provided with fine essays not only by Padon but also by such fine and creative minds as Robert Harrison, Ronald Jones, and Shirin Neshat.

But in the end the book is about pictures and these rare images are captured by such disparate artists as Catherine Opie, Sally Mann, Len Jenschel, Jack Pierson, Sally Apfelbaum, Daniel Boudinet, Peter Fischli and David Weiss to name but a few. The gardens are represented by locations from India, Japan, Europe, North and South America and are selected to investigate the symbolism both spiritual and cultural that these wondrous images capture.

Every aspect of this book is set with loving care and is worthy of the libraries of everyone in love with the secret treasures of the Garden. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, December 06

I bought this book because I am much into garden and flower fotography myself. Anyway I think this book is interesting to everybody looking for new ideas in photography, in general. It is just amazing to see how different can be the approches to a same subject. You go from almost impressionistic views, to ultrasharp images, to compositions that recall maybe cubism in showing all different sides of the garden at the same time. If you like photography, buy it. You will find it deeply stimulating. And of course the photos are amazing and the print is just excellent.

*Chareston Style Then and Now* is, as I undertand it, an abbreviated version of a larger book. (*Charelston Style: Past and Present*.) I ordered the book sight unseen, and it is the first book that I have returned to Amazon. com.

My problems with this book are two: first, there is Susan Sully's prose style. It is, to my ear, painfully affected. And, while there is, perhaps, some useful information contained in her essays, getting through them wasn't worth the effort. Second is the selection of photographs. While technically excellent, many of the images are of rooms that have little relation to "Charleston Style". They are simply rooms--most of them tattered and run down--that happen to be in Charleston, SC. They are aesthetically of no interest to me. And that they happen to be located in Charleston is simply irrelevant.

The book is not a complete loss. Some of John Blais's photographs really do capture the glory of old Charleston. And Josephine Humprey's "Introduction" is lovely. Still, those interested in either the history or architecture of Charleston are advised to look elsewhere.