Art Architecture Photography Books

This book is lovely! Full of rare old pictures of gorgeous golden age gardens and a lot of excellent, well-written text. You will learn something about gardens, American history and culture...the whole thing is so elegant and I've spent a great deal of time both reading and simply daydreaming at the images. Buy it!

My disclaimer?

The fact the authoresses are from the East Coast is embarrasingly obvious; segments on the West are consilliatory at best. Considering the birth of the silver screen, I find it a gross oversight not to include photos of the great Hollywood gardens, save one distant shot of Harold Loyd's estate...a "Golden Age" with no silver screen...?!

So if you're from the West Coast or areas between east and west, you might be dissappointed, but the book is wonderful regardless.

And we already knew what they thought of our "new money", didn't we?

This little book would be invaluable except for the fact that the colors are from the Daler-Rowney range of oil paints, which is a student grade brand. Many of the colors are not even offered by the better paint manufacturers, or if they are it is under different names, and the author does not address this issue. I want to buy paints of much better quality, which makes using the book much less straight forward. Also, the author discusses color only, but not such important issues as the type of binder, concentration of pigment, etc. I feel that the book was written at least partly to push Daler-Rowney paints, and is meant to be used mainly by students and not professional artists.

I like the book. One (typical) page of this book shows color swatches of raw sienna mixed with 12 other colors. Each color mixture is tinted and tinted more. One would think that a skilled artist should have mastery of his/her colors --so that this book really isn't needed. Maybe so. On the other hand, it might be nice to buy two copies and mount the pages for easier reference.

I started in oil paints a couple years ago and found this book a great help. There are so many different color paints on the market this helped narrow down to the essentials. The mixes recommended for skin tones has been a nice springboard to jump from. Definately worth the money.

I do not own the book as yet but My Instructor at the College I attend loaned it to me as I was having a difficult time trying to mix the right colors of sand for my seascape painting. I was very pleased to experiment with the colors used in the book and was able to get the final results I was looking for.

"We believe these books portray a more accurate and more human portrait of American life than Americans - or the rest of the world - are used to seeing on the evening news." ~David Elliot Cohen

Washington State is my favorite place to live in the world. Even after living in Africa, Florida State and traveling in Europe, Washington State calls me back time and time again.

The 636 pictures in this unique book were collected from the America 24/7 project. During a single week, a team of inspired photographers, students and photojournalists sent in pictures from all over America. There are small and large pictures. Smaller pictures often frame the pages and larger pictures are featured in all their full-color splendor.

Pictures I loved:

Yakima Weekly Farmer's Market
Espresso - designs in the foam
Horses running wild
Salmon Ladder in Wenatchee
A picture of the Amazon.com offices
Rafting on the Wenatchee River
Kids chasing bubbles from a Bubble Machine
Space Needle
Platinum Mink Tonkinese Cats waiting for a Ferry
Bill and Melinda Gates home in Medina
The Majestic Mt. Rainier

Rick Smolan and David Elliot Cohen are the authors of the best-selling Day in the Life series of photography books. America 24/7 may also be of high interest. You can also send in your own picture and buy a custom cover. I ordered a custom cover for the American 24/7 book and was very happy with the quality of the cover and it was a fun experience.

24/7 books are now available for every state! All 50 titles became available on Sept 27, 2004. These make perfect gifts for Christmas, Weddings, Family Reunions, Graduations, Birthdays, Housewarmings, Baby Showers, Treasured Moments and Anniversaries. You can send in your own photo to personalize the cover with a one-if-a-kind book jacket. All you have to do is upload a digital photograph at the America 24-7 website. One of the best ideas since books were invented!

I love the picture of the cat sitting on top of the computer monitor! Cats 24/7 will be released in June, 2005. ISBN: 0811848159 Cats & Dogs 24/7 will be released in April, 2005. The 24/7 books are the most successful photography books in history. Owning one of these books is like owning a piece of publishing history.

~The Rebecca Review

I'm sorry to say that I was very disappointed at the content of this book. I purchased it with the intention of giving it as a gift to a European friend I'll be visiting soon. I wanted to give my friend an overview of what my state looks like. Unfortunately, while the photographs are nicely done and the quality is excellent, the shots are mostly just closeups of people involved in various activities. There are very few photos of the state's scenery - the pictures could have been shot almost anywhere.

I read this book before the other book I ordered at the same time - The Landscape Lighting Book by Moyer - and even without the invidious comparison the pair presents, I found Narboni's musings worthless, yes worthless. One thought one gets when reading it is that he dictated it in about two hours.

There is simply no substance and only the most shallow of commentary on various aspects of lighting. Moyer's is still the bible and in comparison to Narboni's, forget it, there is no comparison possible.

I purchased this book with the idea that I'll eventually get to Barcelona. I wanted to see a few things before planning a trip so I would know where to go. This book just makes me want to start planning the trip now. Or maybe just getting a ticket and saying the heck with it all and going. Today.
The architecture is lovely and fantastical. I would love living in such a place. Now I'll have to work on my Catalan (the language they speak there). But that's another book altogether.
I'm also a mosaic artist and Barcelona is one of the epicenters of mosaic work. I've been to Ravenna, Italy and Barcelona's probably the Spanish equivalent.
This book inspires me to look at my house with an eye for doing amazing mosaic work here.

I bought this book as a gift for friends who were about to travel to Barcelona and who did not fully understand the impact of Gaudi's work on this city and the world. The book helped them to rearrange their travel plans and will be wonderful momento of their trip. Beautiful images of all his work.

Having just returned from a trip to Spain that included several days in Barcelona I was delighted to find this book available to purchase. The pictures are beautiful and very representative of the architecture you will see if you spend a few days in the lovely city of Barcelona. I definitely recommend the book.

The Best Book ever to capture the infinate beauty of Gaudi. Just glacing at this book I realize how much I miss Barcelona! The pages just pour over with amazing images of this magical place, I looked through at least a dozen other books while I was in Spain & none came close to the quality of this one by Lluis Permanyer.

This book has some very nice photos, but on the whole it wasn't what I wanted. I intended this to be my first and only book on Gaudi, but it won't serve that purpose. The photos don't include any of the usual angles -- for example, there are far too few shots of the wonderful roof of Casa Battlo, and none that adequately show the sinuous serpent-back tiles. The text explains the symbolism of the roof features, but the photos fail to show the features described in the text. Some of the wide angle shots looking up at ceilings are hard to interpret. The book is best as a complement if one already has a book with shots taken from the standard angles. In that respect, it would be excellent. I won't buy a book like this again without looking at it first.

This would be a great book if they told you how to get to these places. You see something you like and don't have a clue how to get there--if you are welcome when you get there, or if it is place that requires admission fees or advance reservations. I really was disappointed.
If you just want to read about interesting places, it is fine--but if you want to go there--forget it!

This large but not-too-thick book details a number of beautiful and little-known places in Tuscany, ranging over the entire region. This isn't actually a travel book per se -- it doesn't tell you contact information, for example, or even if these places are open to the general public. It does, however, tell you about places in Tuscany that tourists probably never ever get to, to wit: The Refuge of the White Monks at Monte Oliveto Maggiore, built in 1313, with its vaulted white halls filled with frescoes of cats and mounted archers; the lush, almost surreally beautiful gardens of Villa Garzoni in Lucca; the thousands of treasures of all sorts in the Museum of Silver in Palazzo Pitti; the Florentine Botanical Museum; the inlaid treasures of the Museo delle Pietre Dure, including shots of inlay artists at their craft; a silk factory; and many other things, probably 30 to 40 in all. The pictures are lavish and beautifully made, and the text is lyrical and pleasant on the eyes. I'd never even heard of ANY of these places, so reading this book was quite a delicious experience.

I wouldn't get this as a serious travel guide, but it piques the imagination. There may be things here you'll want to find on your next trip to Tuscany.

HIDDEN TUSCANY: UNUSUAL DESTINATIONS AND SECRET PLACES is a title that explains this beautiful book well. Even to the traveler who frequents Tuscany often there are little known but extraordinary treasures that author Cesare Cunaccia and photographer Massimo Listri unveil in a most conversational and sensitively visual display. Yes, it takes many visits to Florence, Sienna, Lucca, etc to see absolutely everything found in the art history books, most of which is in the confines of the Uffizi in Florence and even more of which is reflecting the rich Renaissance era of art. The lines just to see Michelangelo's David, for example, attest to their well-won popularity. But this book points out that there are great examples of the Romanesque architecture, of buildings and gardens that date back to the 1300s, that one of the best-kept secrets of Florence is its Silk Factory. For those art lovers who seek examples of the Mannerist Pontormo look no further than the lavishly illustrated section on his decor for the Santa Felicita. The magic found in the geometric designs that adorn San Miniato defies credibility. Listi is not a documentary photographer and that is a compliment: his photographs are bathed in light and shadow and are reproduced in this splendid volume with great respect for color value. For those not already addicted to the romance of Tuscany this volume will certainly weight the case for its preeminence in the traveler's world.