5 comments about Photography: A Critical Introduction.

1. There's a reason why people say this book reads like a textbook: it _is_ a textbook. As stated in the blurb on the back cover, it a college-level introduction to photographic theory. The theory in question is not that of optics or photochemical reactions or analog-to-digital conversions. Rather, it is the Theory with a capital T of academic postmodernism - "pomo" - the same Theory that presents itself in Film Theory and Literary Theory and the all-encompassing Cultural Theory.
   
   You may have encountered postmodernism in school or in your personal reading. If you did, you will have some idea of what you will find in this book. If not, don't worry about it. The New York Times photography critic Andy Grundberg declared the death of postmodernism in 1990, film theoreticians David Bordwell and Noel Carroll followed suit in their book Post-Theory in 1996, and A-list literary critic Fredric Jameson drove the final nail into the coffin in a New York Times article in 2003. Postmodernism, as the dominant academic fashion, is a thing of the past. It was on its last legs when this book was originally written and it is now definitely over. As such it's not something that you should feel you need to invest in, just make enough sense of to follow what the book is saying.
   
   Though only one name, Liz Wells, appears on the cover, the book is actually the work of six authors, each of whom, including Wells, contributed a chapter or two. All the authors appear to be English and all are (or were at the time of writing) affiliated with British regional universities. The book was originally published in 1996. The third edition, reviewed here, was published in 2003.
   
   The book contains seven chapters, an overview chapter and six chapters on individual topics. The chapters present surveys of articles and books (especially British ones) written on the topics, with lots of quotes from academics and relatively few from practicing photographers. There are bibliographical and other notes in the wide margins of the main text but, rather surprisingly for an introductory textbook, no annotated bibliography or "Further Reading" sections either at the ends of the individual chapters or at the end of the book. Several chapters include one or more case studies, which amount to extended sidebars purporting to demonstrate the application of the theory under discussion to specific photographs or photographic genres.
   
   Based on a single quick read I would say that the quality of the chapters is uneven, ranging from pretty good through OK down to questionable. One or two of the case studies were interesting but most seemed to contribute little if anything to the book. Here, for what they are worth, are my impressions of the chapters (my headings; actual titles can be seen in the Amazon "Look inside this book" pages):
   
   Ch. 1 Overview by Derrick Price and Liz Wells - unstructured, rambling, surprisingly poor; I would recommend skipping over it on the first read and going directly to the topical chapters. However the case study on Dorothea Lange's iconic Migrant Mother is the best in the book and should be looked at even if the rest of the chapter is skipped.
   
   Ch. 2 Photojournalism by Derrick Price - one of the best in the book, very clear, well connected to the history of (British) photography, interesting.
   
   Ch. 3 Personal photography by Patricia Holland - pretty good, genuinely thought-provoking at times, for example in its discussion of the tension between the idealized representation of domestic life in family albums and the often less than ideal realities hiding behind (and occasionally peaking through) the pictures.
   
   Ch. 4 Photography of the human body by Michelle Henning - attempts to present a feminist perspective but tends to get stuck in the rhetoric and not reveal much about the actual work being talked about.
   
   Ch. 5 Advertising (esp. fashion) photography by Anandi Ramamurthy - not as compelling as it could be but makes some interesting points, for example relating to stock photos and image banks and the commercial need for photographs created without, or later detached from, any specific context or meaning. The case study on the controversial Benetton ad campaigns of the late 80's is worth reading.
   
   Ch. 6 Photography as art by Liz Wells - pretty good but focuses on historical debates and doesn't consider the forces that have caused recent changes in art photography (new objectivity/deadpan, influence of cinema, aftermath photography, etc.). The case studies on Surrealism and Landscape photography (one of the author's specialties) could have been among the most interesting but are actually very lackluster.
   
   Ch. 7 Photography in the digital age by Martin Lister - the oddest chapter but in some ways the most satisfying. It's the one chapter that was significantly changed for the third edition. The author seems to have left the earlier version more or less as it was but added what amounts to an extended postscript that says that what comes before it is wrong. The change of heart centers around the question of the impact of the advent of digital imaging on the connection between the photograph and reality. In the original version of the chapter he says that digital imaging invalidates the connection and ends photography as we know/knew it. In the postscript he says that things actually didn't change that much, that most digital images retain their connection to reality and that, even if some clearly don't, there have always, since the earliest days, been photographs that present something more or less different from literal reality - a theme that actually runs through the whole book and may be considered its central point.
   
   My main feeling about this book is that I wish it were better. I wish were clearer and better structured, I wish it were more up-to-date and less encumbered by the intellectual cruft of academic postmodernism, and, finally, I wish it were less Anglocentric and paid more attention to photography of North America, Europe, and the rest of the world. Still for all that it is not a bad book, and I give it three stars.



2. This book should be required for all photo students and art history and criticism students. I found the writing incredibly reader-friendly, though it helps to have an art or photo background already - this book does read like a textbook (because it is one!) but this is to its credit as it is incredibly organized, clear, and informative as an overview of photo criticism. One of the best features is that it includes detailed bibliographies at the end of each chapter, faithfully cites sources, and has side notes in the margins citing sources for further reading and adding more information, explanations, or qualifiers to the general discussion (the margins are great for writing your own notes, too). It does NOT have extensive illustrations - so do not buy this book for the images. However, the author explains in the introduction that she did not include so many except to clearly illustrate the text where needed in order to keep the cost of the book affordable. I feel that she made good choices in imagery and that there are plenty to support the text. I am starting a graduate program in visual and critical studies and work in photography, and I am sure I will use this critical introduction as a reference again and again, especially to find sources for research. I plan on buying the Photography Reader by Liz Wells as soon as I am able to.



3. This review is aimed at photographers and not social scientists or philosophers.
   
   Photographers are often like the allegorical blind men, each of whom examined a different part of an elephant with his hands and then concluded that the elephant was a snake, or a leaf, or a tree. Photographers tend to see the world of photography through their own viewfinders without stepping back and looking at all of photography, even though doing so might provide new insights in handling what they see in their viewfinder.
   
   This book is a textbook that examines photography not from the point of technique, or learning how to read a photograph, but from the point of view of the social sciences and philosophy. It is primarily aimed at British society, but its lessons are applicable anywhere pictures are made. Many photographers will recognize the discussion of the truth of digital photography as opposed to film photography, but I wonder how many have considered how family photographs may actually shape family dynamics.
   
   The book is divided into several chapters that are neither all inclusive nor exclusive. There is a general discussion of photography debates over time (e.g., "Is it Art"?), and then the book focuses on particular areas, including documentary, popular, body, advertising and fine art photography. It finishes with a chapter on electronic imaging.
   
   The authors often describe movements historically, with a general recap of the main points of each issue (is photography by its use or nature demeaning to women?) but seldom go to the point of showing enough pictures and explaining them to prove either side of an argument. Instead they provide references and footnotes in the margins and leave it up to the reader to further explore the question. At the same time, some of the ideas, even though self-evident upon deep consideration, are provocative. For instance, the authors suggest that the fact that "private photography has become family photography is itself an indication of the domestication of everyday life...." What implications does this have for photography in today's multi-married, multi-divorced society? Often the discussions reverse on themselves, repeat ideas and jump backwards and forwards in time. Some readers may find the jargon of semiotics and deconstruction off-putting. The book is boring.
   
   And yet a photographer cannot escape being humbled by realizing that the photography that he deals with is just one little corner of a wider universe, and humility may be good for a photographer. This volume may contain more intellectualizing then some photographers may be willing to tolerate, but even at the risk of being bored, a photographer may benefit from understanding the larger context of his or her work.



4. As a Visual Arts student coming to terms with the whole conceptual ideology in contemporary art, I found this book an excellent choice for delving into the theoretical side of contemporary photgraphy. This book is definitely not bedtime reading. Trust me, I tried it and kept myself awake! There is also an excellent reference to archives, journals and other books to peruse. I found the book easy to understand and has helped me immensely in my quest to understand what constitutes Visual Art in current times. An excellent choice for all those contemplating a Visual Arts career using photographic images



5. The other reviewers have hit the high points. This book is dry, lacks illustration, is academic and difficult to read. The writing style is highly academic with major points all but hidden in convoluted sentences. To complicate matters the chapters are written by different authors so the writing styles vary. There is much to be learned from this book but as the other reviewers have pointed out, it will be a painful process.

2 comments about Peter Walker And Partners Landscape Architecture: Defining The Craft.

1. amazing graphics along with pictures of the designs. if you like peter walker, you'll love this book.



2. Peter Walker and Partners.
   Landscape Architecture: Defining the Craft.
   Thames and Hudson
   531 Illustrations and diagrams 431 in colour.
   2005 London
   ISBN-13 978-0-500-34207-7
   
   Based in Berkeley, Peter Walker and Partners (PWP) is, in conventional terms, a fantastically successful practice and this book documents their signature projects since 1997. Although with only three open competition wins to their name, the practice has received an extraordinary 110 industry awards since 1960. Not only that, everyone knows Peter Walker is a champion of quality, a leader who has bridged academic and professional spheres and networked the world to his practice. In Australia, as elsewhere, Walker is greatly admired; indeed, he is called upon to preface our books and help us design things like the Sydney Olympics. That we couldn't do this alone is not his problem. These are the halcyon days of Walker's career.
   
   As described in his first monograph "Minimalist Gardens" (1997), Walker somewhat unconvincingly indebts his work to the mid to late 20th century art movement, Minimalism. He also acknowledges the influence of Japanese gardens and (environmental) artists such as the late Isamu Noguchi as well as drawing a line between himself and the 17th century French master, Andre Le Notre but anyone buying this book out of interest in these connections or Walker's intellectual or creative maturation in general will be disappointed.
   
   Despite this being implicitly his book, Walker, insofar as one can tell, doesn't contribute a single reflective word. Like a corporate annual report, this book has no identifiable author except the generic entity, PWP. Perhaps, as an established figure, Walker feels he no longer has to speak too much about the work. Maybe he has nothing new to add to his well publicised views. Or perhaps, after years of arguing for landscape architecture to be appreciated as a meaningful art he's changed his mind and concluded that- as this book's title suggests -it is now craft that really matters; and craft, unlike art, speaks for itself. But he (i.e, PWP) couldn't have played into the old squabbles between art and craft unconsciously, and yet such things are not addressed. There is, in fact, only one theme in this book and that is that PWP delivers quality. Accordingly, this book looks and feels like an Expression of Interest, in other words- an ad, albeit one with the imprimatur of Thames and Hudson. Having said that, what text there is, is relatively lighter on spin than we have become accustomed to.
   
   There are 37 posh projects collected in this volume and they are categorised into: Recently Completed Projects; Projects in Progress; Site Planning and Urban Design; and Competitions. The projects are prestigious, big and lush, an extraordinary range of work amassed over just a few years. Accompanying each project is a straightforward (if not reductive) explanation of the brief and PWP's subsequent design strategy. This is where the consumer of this book, if he or she unpacks each design, stands to learn something of value because, irrespective of whether you like or dislike their styling, PWP projects are exemplary in terms of accurately responding to a project's priority needs.
   
   Typical to the corporate monograph there is a perfunctory essay up front by Jane Brown Gillette. Rather than engaging with Walker's oeuvre or matters aesthetic, her essay is essentially a cursory description of the mechanics of the practice. She toasts PWP's loyal workers (apparently the best students from the best universities) and lauds its diplomatic project managers. Her essay reads not as if written for the international landscape community that PWP has so effectively used as it's global conduit, rather, the essay seems directed at prospective clients. She forewarns but also allures them to the culture of excellence that is PWP and makes that excellence seem user friendly. Apart from a brief notation of the firm's position in North American landscape architecture and the occasional but typical landscape architectural inanity such as telling us that PWP can make "nature visible and meaningful" there is nothing critical, analytical, theoretical, insightful or even polemical in this book. In this regard, academics or anyone interested in the intellectual "craft" of landscape architecture will have no use for this book.
   
   In Gillette's essay there are references to, and quotes referring to "ideas" in the designs, but for mine they are not actually ideas; they are solutions. More often than not these solutions rely on a somewhat formulaic geometric elegance which creates structure, followed by superimpositions of pattern to form surface. To be "ideas" they need to have meaning, not just efficacy, and meaning is a question this book ignores. For Walker, minimalism has been a way around the problem of representation, but, at some level, there is no way around representation, no way around meaning. Since the text in this book is so lazy, the images of the PWP craft have to do most of the talking. Hence, the book is literally stuffed full of super gloss photos, 531 to be exact. But many are cliché's, relatively vacuous images of greener-than-green trees, sparkling water, and an awful lot of nice people generally looking content in PWP's sanitised, high-resolution Arcadia.
   
   Although they have reason to be, PWP doesn't come across as smug. As Gillette says, if there is one word that describes the practice its "earnest". Be that as it may, one also gets the feeling that despite having a studio full of the best people the office culture of PWP might lack internal critique. Of course, it is an exceptional achievement to have created a global practice and maintained such high standards; but, the book, in failing to offer anything but promotional material, feels disingenuous. Apart from an excess of photos the book doesn't really explore or zoom in on the details of construction and project management that PWP are so good at. In other words it doesn't deliver what it promised - a `definition of the craft". So, whilst it will no doubt bring in more work, it wont go down well in history and therefore I think we can expect a third monograph on Mr Peter Walker et al.

2 comments about Period Rooms in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Metropolitan Museum of Art Series).

1. In my opinion, this book is well worth having and a must for serious students of Interior Design and the Decorative Arts. Written in a scholarly fashion with beautiful photos, it is a marvelous resource affording the reader the opportunity to view period rooms in context. Arrived promptly in good condition, as described.



2. This book is one of the most helpful architecture and furniture books I have found. The met has put together a wide variety of periods and locations to let us look into the rooms of times past. The pictures are stunning and the descriptions are very informative.

2 comments about Primary Art: It's the Process, Not the Product.

1. Really good book, but I am sorry that the inside is not in color, since it is a art book.



2. Childhood is a time for exploration, discovery, experimentation....thus, the process of art has always outweighed the final product in its value and focus. But it's also true that elementary aged kids are taking a new interest in the results of their explorations. That is, they enjoy the outcomes of their work in art. The art works in Primary Art will be valued as "unique results", not as pre-planned crafts or adult-designed artworks. Kids value aesthetically pleasing art, which can take many avenues as they explore...they use words like fancy, amazing, awesome, interesting, special, and "mine". To say they expect resuls is to reinforce the philosophy of exploring and experimenting with art as they apply their developing skills and abilities to control their own chosen results. So art is still a process for elementary kids, and the product is their own design and making. Art is an exciting experiment that encourages individuals to explore and discover their abilities and expressions, with artistic results that range from astonished to delighted, spectacular to breath-taking, lovely to reserved, and charming to rare. And as the adults who help it all happen, we are allowed the gift of seeing it before our very eyes. Primary Art offers art in three steps...introductory, exploratory, and challenging, all related and building on each other. I love this book!!!

5 comments about Chinese Calligraphy: From Pictograph to Ideogram: the History of 214 Essential Chinese/japanese Characters.

1. I was expecting another 1,2,3...214 radical list. But the author have a more interesting approach: the book is really about radicals - the title "calligraphy" should not be used, as so for the "chinese and japanese". But that is just my oppinion. It is a first rate book as for binding, text and illustrations, and the subject it deals with: radicals. Besides, it has one explanation very well described and with stories, jokes, about the radicals, that make this book a must to relax and enjoy each of them. Personally I feel I will read it until the last
   word and...start again. I really like the way the author describes not only the story of the character, but also its applications. I just did not give five stars because I could not see it in the " search inside" and know that the
   examples of phrases are in Simplified characters, for I study in Traditional ones. As for the "calligraphy" it does not show you any beautiful cursive that the chinese use as pictures in their walls. But I guess the way it is presented is more didatic. It is clear and ease to understand. Maybe this is the reason it is so...but I still would not use the "caligraphy" in the title. But,I repeat,I loved the book. It is really good to read and to learn. Great !



2. Beautiful written characters combined with excelent text and funny image.
   Good for both students and teachers !



3. Each and every Chinese character has a form of its own, representing a particular meaning and/or sound. This book is a good introduction to Chinese characters. An exquisite Chinese character, like thousand words, tells its own story and evolution. Through understanding these key characters, sometimes called radicals, one can discover the beauty of Chinese culture as well as civilization. (...)



4. I have been inspired by this book to pursue the study of Chinese characters to a deeper level. On the other hand, the more I read and compare it to other resources on the same subject, the more critical I become.
   
   This book has inspired me to a deeper study of Chinese radicals (for a better understanding of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean). The result - I've found it makes a great stepping stone, and can be used for comparative analysis of the surprising variety of information available to English speakers mostly through the internet, or through native language dictionaries for those with access, but it should NOT be relied upon as a single source for learning, teaching, or research. It is reasonably educational and artistic, but not authoritative.
   
   Even though I love this book and go back to it occasionally, there is one huge glaring error, to the point of unethical advertising, starting on the cover of the book. The title misleadingly contains the word "Japanese." Although Chinese characters are an important part of the Japanese language, it contains NOTHING about Japanese. You would have to be aware of Japanese independently of this book in order to make the connection that is made ONLY in the title. It is an English language book explaining aspects of Chinese, with the use of simplified characters created by the Peoples Republic of China as examples - although the simplified PRC characters bear some resemblance to the traditional characters that are mostly used in Japan, they are not the same, therefore making this book less useful for dedicated students of Japanese.
   
   Anyway, despite this beef with the title and the fact that it should not be used a sole source for academic pursuit, it has many more merits than demerits. Since it is one of the very few books dedicated to this specific subject as well, the uniqueness adds a little to its value.



5. I like this book, and so I'm giving it 4 stars, but that is not to say that the criticisms of it are without merit.

   Firstly, this book has absolutely nothing to do with learning the Chinese language. You will not be able to read Chinese from buying this book, and it will be impossible to study the language, since there is no systemitized presentation of the language. What this book instead does is presents an interesting geneology of some fairly common, culturaly relevant, or visualy interesting characters. For people who already know some Chinese, or for people who are interested in evolutions of writting systems or graphic design, this is not a bad book.

   There are some strange inconsistencies, but I have a theory that explains them. First, the book inconsitently presents some characters in simplified form, while others are in traditional form. Second, criticisms of the caligraphy are fair. They have heart, but it is not really outstanding, and certainly not something to be emulated.

   From these two problems, I concluded that the book was not a product of the Chinese mainland, Xiang Gang (Hong Kong), or Taiwan, since such inconsitencies would have been corrected. If you do some checking, that's because it isn't. As you probably could have guessed by the author's name, it's an Italian book. The Italian author worked with a Japanese illustrator to compile the book.

   Japanese Kanji are Chinese characters adopted into the Japanese language, but they have been isolated from Chinese for centuries. As a result, some of the more complex characters have been simplified. Simplification of Chinese characters started long before Mao made them standard in the PRC. Infact, they are generaly based on cursive and calligraphic short-hands developed by people who had to write a lot, or who were not educated enough to constantly be in need of writting formal characters.

   Many characters have been simplified from their original forms even in the so called "Traditional" character set (Fanti Zi) such as the numbers, and the Tai in Taiwan. The original, complex numbers used in formal Chinese can still be found on currency, mostly to confound counterfiters. Some characters, such as Li, meaning 'inside,' or Zhen, meaning 'real' can be found written one way, but typed in a less simplified way.

   Simplification in pre-Mao Chinese was common, but not standardized. When Mao standardized all the characters for the PRC, he took all of the commonly simplified characters, as well as simplifying some other, more complex characters with whole new sets of visual symbolism, some time to enhance the 'phonetic' part of the character, so that it is easier to guess the sound of the word. The characters 'ren' and 'shi,' together meaning 'to come to know' are great examples of this.

   Japanese characters are written without these contemporary simplifications since they were linguisticly isolated from Chinese by the 20th century, but reflect many common older simplifications. An prime example of this is the character 'ya' used in 'yazhou' for Asia, or otherwise just meaning second. It is rather dificult to write aestheticaly in Traditional Characters, but in Simplified Characters (Jianti Zi) it is much much easier, if not as beautifull. On the other hand, the correspondent Japanese Kanji is written in the old hand-written style.

   Needless to say, the Japanese also have different aesthetic standards from the Chinese. The use of Japanese is not at all uncommon in earlier European Sinology. Ezera Pound, for instance, in translating the works of Li Bai (Also called Li Po, or Li Bo, as it was pronounced during the Tang Dynasty) actualy translated an Italian manuscript which itself was translated from a Japanese copy of the Chinese Poet's famous writtings. This circuitious route would explain some of the, er, to put it kindly, eccentricities of Pound's translations, and it explains some of the inconsistencies in this book.

   There are many things this book is not: it is not an introduction to Chinese. It is not an instructional book on how to paint calligraphy. It is not a comprehensive academic study of the Chinese system of writting.

   As long as you accept it for what it is, though, and don't mistake it for something it's not, this is a pleasant book. The characters are more or less acurately explained, and they are organized according to important cultural themes. Thus, it is a nice primer on the subject of the esoteric meanings and evolutions of Chinese characters for the casual (not academic) student. There are better books I've read on the subject, but they are all in Chinese.

3 comments about Color and Culture: Practice and Meaning from Antiquity to Abstraction.

1. This book shows you all you want to know about colours. It's not truly scientific but it showed me the best and most of colour-theory. I had some trouble with the science-language but hey, I'm Dutch, not a native "American" speaker! The only thing that I would change in this book is more pictures, and all in colour!



2. While I won't go to the trouble of selling this book, I do regret having purchased it. There are many other texts that do a much more nuanced and cogent exposition of the relationship between color and culture. My future use of this book will be as a visual reference, i.e. to refer to the various paintings and other works gorgeously reproduced in color.
   
   Otherwise, Gage's Color and Culture as well as Color and Meaning are best used as "intelligent" coffee table tomes.



3. This book is an excellant source of palette development, pigment uses and development as well as color theories throughout history. My students have worn out my copy -- needs to be reprinted and made known in college art departments. Good, solid informational writing and illustrations. A must-have book for artists and students. D. Swaim, Prof., M.C.C., Arizona

5 comments about VJ: Audio-Visual Art and VJ Culture: Includes DVD.

1. The book is well written and is a great overview of the VJ culture, the DVD is full of excerpts form live perfomances by the major artist around, interviews and CGI videos. A must-have for VJS!



2. Just finished reading this book and have to say its amazing.
   
   very insightful cross section of the Vj community. Much to be learnt about the wide range of VJs out there.
   
   It has a good mix between articles on specific issues, looking at the world of VJs, and technical articles explaining how established VJs have their setup.
   
   The DVD has been produced to a very high standard, and like the book lots of informative content is on it.
   
   The book looks beautiful with all the UV pages, and so much design work has gone into it.
   
   anyone who has not got this book yet is missing out big time, recommended to the highest degree.



3. This book was several years in the making, and I admire the dedication of those involved in getting it to print.
   
   Unfortunately, that means that in such a rapidly-moving field, it's a bit out of date. Several of the acts featured have disappeared off the radar by now, and there are some quite glaring omissions - such as the EyeWash DVDs, Resolume software (currently used by around a third of the world's top VJ's) and uh... PC's. This wouldn't bother me as much if not for the tagline on the back cover which touts 'full details of the hardware and software available for VJing are provided'. I'd suggest that 'examples of hardware and software available for Mac-based VJing are provided'.
   
   If you get the impression that you need a pair of Mac Powerbooks to VJ from the setups and info given in this book, don't worry - that's not the case. The scene featured in this book is just one aspect of international VJ Culture, and it's been curated from a particularly Mac perspective.
   
   It's a graphic-design triumph - you couldn't ask for more beautiful, slick presentation. The background of Faulkner and other members of D-Fuse as print-based graphic designers with decades of experience between them really shows. Personally, I find the layering and shiny panels a bit distracting and hard to read at one sitting, and I feel like I should put on gloves every time I pick it up as the slightest touch leaves great grubby fingerprints on some of the shinier pages. But it's a stunning, jaw-dropping book, which is just what the scene needed.
   
   To be honest, I don't see this as a book to read so much as to show-off. VJing is a very visual artform, so what better way to communicate what it's all about than in gorgeous, awe-inspiring imagery? Even if it's a bit of a struggle to actually sit and read it cover-to-cover, it's the PERFECT coffee-table book. You couldn't ask for a better showcase for potential clients, newbie wannabes or... well... your Mum... to show what VJing is and why you're dedicating yourself to it despite the bad pay, the expensive equipment, the long hours, etc etc.
   
   A friend of ours runs a Band House, where touring members of bands stay when they're performing in her town. She's a VJ, and so in a good position to plug 'have you thought about using visuals?' on a daily basis. She said this book's been the perfect way to do that - she just leaves a copy lying around and the muso's thumb through it over their breakfast.
   
   The DVD is a huge improvement over that provided with Spinrad's 'the VJ Book'. There's a load of great material on it, and most of it's of an equivalent standard to the imagery in the book - the glamour, high-end of the VJ scene. Positively wow-worthy, and the most impressive DVD collection of live VJing I've seen to date. Some of my favourite parts though were cut very short - eg just a minute or two long - and then there's the bizarrely out of place inclusion of long swathes of content by Elliott Earls, most of which has little to do with the VJ scene - eg a long mockumentary called the Saranay Hotel. Given that there was so much other great VJ content that could have gone on there, I can't work out why Earls' doco was included. It's got nothing to do with VJing or audio-visual art, and the quality is so vastly different to everything else on the DVD.
   
   Like Spinrad's VJ Book before it, I've bought multiple copies of this book/DVD to give away whenever I can afford it. I take a copy to meetings with new clients, and I lend copies to newbie VJs that come along to our Plug n Play nights. The real problem is keeping a copy for myself, as everyone wants to take it home.
   
   The VJ scene is really still very young - maybe equivalent to the DJ scene of two or three decades ago - and we need some impressive look-at-me Superstar VJ's to get the public to take notice, so that the rest of us can get on with doing what we do with hopefully a bit more attention being paid to what's going on behind the scenes on the screens.
   
   I think this book is probably the single biggest factor so far in that process of getting the public to take notice. It's a lush, visually stunning celebration of a new phenomenon. Thanks so much to Faulkner and the rest of D-Fuse for giving this to the scene. Every VJ should own a copy. Or three.
   
   VJ kattyb, VJzoo.com



4. I was contacted by D-Fuse for an interview for a book a few months ago. I am a VJ as well and I was expecting some sort of paper bag book when it came out. I got it yesterday, a day after my birthday in fact and I have never seen a book (if you can call it just that) with so much detail and so much artistic value.
   
   The audio-visual art + vj culture is one of those books you need to have in your livingroom for your friend to look up despite its content yet. Tp make it better there is so much information inside, even a graphic on how many VJs are per country.
   
   Is a book compared to those of Frank Lloyd Wight. Is one of those books that make you feel like having one even you do not know what is about. The best thing is that you will learn a lot because of the way all reference are managed. And you know what? I'm on page 160!!!
   
   Really good work regarding content and desing, I am very very impress. I am about to get another one, one to show to the people and another one for me.



5. This book is a brilliant piece of art as much as it is a great resource for beginning and established VJs. The presentation of pictures and graphics is stunning, and looking at all of the eyecandy in the book can be inspiring.
   
   This book does a great job of showcasing the best talent in the business in the form of interviews and articles. There are also some really great tips and how-to guides that even the most experienced VJ can learn from. Equipment hardware and software is covered thoroughly and explained in detail.
   
   This is truly a book all VJs should add to their bookcase because it will always serve as a great reference tool as well as entertain and enage you as a casual reader. I highly recommend this book to all VJs and people that have a passion for motion graphics and live performance art.

5 comments about Intimate Landscapes: Charles Warren Eaton and the Tonalist Movement.

1. I'm not an artist or historian, but I own some American paintings and have long been attracted to what I now recognize as "tonalist" works. This is the single best analysis of tonalism I have discovered and the book is a revelation. Cleveland rescues tonalism from unjustified obscurity and places Eaton and other tonalist masters squarely in the context of such great painters as Whistler and Innes. He makes clear that the somber palate and simplified, even minimalist patterns that foreshadow contemporary artists like Rothko are both intellectually and aesthetically sophisticated and satisfying. It strikes me as a shame that major American museums have so neglected this important school of American painters; they seem uneasy with their placement of Whistler, whom they grudgingly accord wall space, while lavishing attention on often second-rate Impressionists. Cleveland's book should stimulate a re-appraisal of Eaton and his mostly-forgotten contemporaries.



2. An excellent review of the tonalist movement and Charles Warren Eaton's place within it. Both black and white and colored illustrations are excellent. Cleveland's book gives a complete review of the show.



3. This is a beautiful little book, 11.5" X 9.5" X 3/8" with 79 pages of text, which include 32 black and white reproductions of paintings by other tonalist or influencial painters (Kost, Ochtman, Chase, Martin, Klimt,Inness, etc.) The highlights of the book are the 32 color plates (good sized, 5X7, 4X7) by Charles Warren Eaton (1857-1937). Eaton was trained by Thomas Wilmer Dewing, at the Art Students League. This book is a little treasure.



4. David Clevelands book is a terrific read and an important original contribution to debunking the long held opinion that the American Tonalist art movement was a minor footnote and a backward looking reflection of the times in which Americans were seeking a simpler world and a return to agrarian life in America instead of Tonalism as being the Whistlerian army of the modern movement in art. His well researched book shows without question that Tonalism was a dominate force in American Art during the period 1880-1915 documenting the significant collections in which these works of art were held and that the leading art dealers of the period and art organizations were dominated by these artists. The book forces us to reevaluate the common view that the Acedemic paintings of American artists trained in Europe and that of the artists of the Hudson River School (1840-1890) was replaced by Impressionism. In fact the art movements of Tonalism, Impressionism and the Realists (Henri's art for life's sake) lived side by side especially after 1900 and many artists went back and forth between these approaches to painting life-Tonalism as an underlying approach for many. Mr. Cleveland has compilied a comprehensive list of the artists who practiced this type of painting and has even catagorized them into first and second generation painters. This is a bonus for art collectors who want to know what artists to look for when collecting Tonalist paintings. Insights from the book that I found to be of particular interest were the major influence Tonalism held on the Arts & Crafts movement, the influence of Tonalism on early American modern photography (Steiglitz/Photo-Sessions Group) with its same essential qualities and the tie-in with American transcendentalism espoused by Emerson and Thoreau reflecting its spiritual and aesthetic values shown in pictorial form verses in written word. It is also a refreshing change to see an art history book focused on a period or movement thru an artist such as Charles Warren Eaton who is lesser known today but who was well known,actively exhibited and collected in their time. All too often I find art history is only written about a few prominent painters and as such does not give the reader a broader perspective and insight into a given art movement. This book does just that and is well worth reading and a must for anyone serious about the study of American Art.



5. I count "Intimate Landscapes" as the most stimulating critical analysis of Tonalist Painting I have read. Clevelands' writing is both brilliant and challenging. My humanity has been improved and my understanding has been enriched as a result of reading this outstanding book. Many art books are just picture books. This one not only has the finest collection of Eatons' work in print, but you've got to read what Cleveland has to say about the art and times. He's Brilliant! Thank you!

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