Cultured Travel Guide Books - Chased By The Light |
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 779.99776
EAN: 9781559718004
ISBN: 1559718005
Label: Creative Publishing international
Manufacturer: Creative Publishing international
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 132
Publication Date: 2001-10-01
Publisher: Creative Publishing international
Studio: Creative Publishing international |
| Spotlight Customer Reviews: |
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Chased by the Light
Comment: This book should be owned by anyone who has ever done any kind of art or disciplined activity. The effort to take one photograph per day for a season instead of the thoughtless reliance on technology teaches an important lesson, one that we all could benefit from. It shows what slowing down and really looking means. And the layout and design are impressive.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Comment: If you haven't seen the DVD (Public TV?) program of this project, you should-great insights into what Brandenburg was after as a photographer-the great and the struggles. WOnderful book and photos!
Customer Rating: 
Summary: A Nice Conceit
Comment: It's a nice conceit. A great outdoor photographer sets for himself the task to taking one, but only one, photograph each and every day for an entire season.
One can see all kinds of implications. Once the photographer finds a subject he must get it right the first time because he isn't allowed a second chance. Exposure, focus, composition - everything must be right and as good as he can get it. Moreover he is continually in peril. Should he pass by a good shot in the morning in expectation of a better shot in the afternoon? And what happens when no better shot is in the camera as sunset approaches? We can easily believe Jim Brandenburg when he says that the exercise was a transforming experience.
But the question for viewers of this book is whether the pictures are a transforming experience for us. Unfortunately, they were not for me.
I understand that some of the pictures were bound to be underexposed or out of focus. Plants blow in the wind; animals move. But while I examined the photographs in this book, I also looked at other work by Brandenburg. These other collections were always quite impressive, providing new ways of looking at the world. Many of the pictures in "Chased by the Light" showed a keen sensibility for the light. The silhouettes of loons and a small island with trees against the backlight of a clouded dawn were breathtaking. The photograph of a raven's feather against a lichen background with a few beaded drops of water on the feather caught my eye.
But for every great photograph, there was one that was pedestrian and one that was discardable. I certainly didn't need to see an out-of-focus mink or trees in the forest with no true subject.
To be fair to Brandenburg, this project was apparently not undertaken for publication but rather as an exercise for his own development. It was his editor who wanted to publish after seeing the photographs. To the editor's eye, at least, the pictures were enlightening and well worth the effort.
The greatest value of this book was not in the photographs but in the speculation in which I engaged about why this book was not outstanding. Is photography a stochastic process with each photograph taken possibly leading to an even greater photograph? Did forcing himself to elect when to take his daily picture cause Brandenburg to sacrifice opportunities, or even limit his willingness to take risks. Does the order of presentation of photographs have synergistic effects, which were lost, because this book almost demanded only chronological order? Does forcing the viewer to look at pictures that would otherwise be discards detract from the impact of good pictures?
For me this book was conceptual art. I found the idea of the task transformed my view of photography. The pictures themselves did not.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Challenge Achieved with Grace
Comment: I gave this book to my parents several years ago and still leaf slowly through its pages whenever visiting their home in northern Minnesota. For amateurs and professionals alike, his is a fascinating photographic concept: your own property? a favorite park? your family? or pet? a holiday?
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Summary: I normally hesitate to use this word, but...profound.
Comment: I'm a verbal type; I'd rather read a beautifully written description of a frozen lake than stare at a picture of it anytime. Even knowing that, my mother gave me this book several years ago, and I fell in love. I sat with it for hours, seeing, dreaming, and I still take it down often to do the same again. The photographer, Jim Brandenburg, set himself the challenge of taking only one photograph each day for three months, in the boreal forest where he makes his home. The result is a portrait of life as many of us can never experience it: not just "calendar shots," but pictures that show the cruelty of man, the certainty of death, the very simple beauty of a single bright leaf burning on the dark, still waters of an evening pond. Some photos are amazing in themselves and some seem ordinary in the extreme, but it is important to take them as a whole, and see what you learn from the journey.
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| Editorial Reviews: |
Award-winning nature photographer Jim Brandenburg gave himself a challenge: for ninety days between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice, he would take only one photograph each day. This exquisite book, now in softcover, is the result of that bold and immensely personal project. Through the accompanying essay, Brandenburg shares his innermost thoughts and passions as he witnesses the cycle of nature near his home in the northwoods of Minnesota. Brandenburg also contributes new photos and an Epilog that illustrates and discusses the devastating summer wind storm that wreaked havoc on the locations photographed for the original project.
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