Architectural Books - Page 3

Robert Polidori: Havana

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Robert Polidori, often considered an architectural photographer, is in fact a photographer of habitat. On the surface his subjects are buildings, but at the core his lens is focused on the remnants and traces of living he finds scattered in hallways, left in back rooms and worn on facades. His spectacular color photographs are presented here in an appropriately oversized volume that capture both their monumentality and their attention to detail. Havana is a particularly rich setting for Polidori's inquiries. The curves and columns that line the streets refer to past eras and speak of the political, social, and economic forces that have driven the city to its present condition. Through his rigorous and sensitive examination - facilitated by a sense of color and composition that makes his photographs feel like vivid memories - Polidori delicately peels away the patina of daily living and reveals the juxtapositions that create a city's identity. His photographs define the idea of faded grandeur. In this city the peddler lives where the countess once resided; children dance and tumble where merchants conducted their business. Each photograph is a discovery and a fragment of the city's biography.

Architectural Photography: Inside and Out

Jim Lowe

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A valuable reference 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This is one of two architectural photography books my husband and I use as a reference in our business. We publish photo-driven travel guides, and having good images of iconic community buildings and hotels is a must.

There are three things that make this book valuable.

First, its images. Like you'd expect, they look great, with good use of line, form and color. Even better, there is a great variety of compositions, both exterior and interior.

Second, the captions. Each photo is accompanied by a small description that includes the camera model used to take the shot, the exposure time, the aperture and the ISO setting.

Third, and most important to us, these aren't just shots of bizarre buildings you'd have to travel the world to track down. Since they rely more on the talent of the photographer than nature of their subjects, these shots could be replicated nearly anywhere--at least if you're willing to try hard enough.

The other architectural book we use is A Constructed View: The Architectural Photography of Julius Shulman. It has a different perspective, and is from an earlier era. We think the two books compliment each other well.

Editorial Review:

Photographers are increasingly turning their eyes towards cities and towns for inspiration. Written for photographers of all levels and architectural enthusiasts alike, this guide combines functional and creative images to lead anyone through the process of taking better shots. Jim Lowe, a prolific freelance photographer, explains how to best capture architectural details, using natural and artificial light, and framing interior and exterior compositions. Perfect for the student who wants to make money out of their hobby, advice on every step of the professional process is here—from building a portfolio to selling images.

Angkor: Cambodia's Wondrous Khmer Temples, Fifth Edition (Odyssey Illustrated Guide)

Dawn Rooney, Peter Danford

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Should be required for visitors to Angkor 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This book is an absolute necessity for visiting Angkor, at least if one has an interest in archaeology. In fact, knowing what I know now, I would have skipped hiring a guide and just rented a bicycle with this book as my guide. It is comprehensive, well-illustrated (although the illustrations are not always tied to the adjacent text--my most serious complaint about the book), and has the right balance between academic and popular interest. It is well-worth the extra weight involved in taking it along to Asia (I wish they had used cheaper paper and binding to make it lighter, but then the pictures wouldn't have been so inviting). Maps and organization make it easy to use, although the index sometimes is off by a page or two--perhaps they didn't update it all from the 4th ed. At any rate, it is far superior to all other guides I found on the subject.

Editorial Review:

The great legacy of the ancient Khmer civilization, the temples of Angkor were built between the ninth and 15th centuries and cover an area stretching across 77 square miles in northwest Cambodia. This beautifully illustrated book contains a comprehensive monument-by-monument guide to the sites, detailed maps and plans, plus information about ten newly accessible temple complexes.
• Ten new temple sites; an additional 180 pages with 86 new color images
• Foreword by His Majesty King Norodom Sihamoni of Cambodia
• Extensive accounts of temples and pre-Angkor sites
• Profiles the Phnom Penh National Museum
• The hip town Siem Reap—the base for exploring Angkor
• Unique flora and fauna around the great lake, Tonle Sap
• 158 color photos, 44 maps & plans.

Approaching Nowhere: Photographs

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

United TOADs of America* 5 out of 5 stars.
14 of 15 people found this review helpful.

They're everywhere and so like the title of this book: nowhere. Wherever the tarmac leads signs of commercial chaos and eventually abandonment will probably appear. In theory nothing wrong with that, businesses come and go but it seems unique to America that a gone business is remarkably reluctant to clean up after itself. The detritus of commerce just litters the landscape and a fortunate by-product of this mess, over recent years, is an increasing visual record created by a small band of brilliant topographic photographers.

Jeff Brouws has spent some years casting his creative eye over urban sprawl, interstate commercial failure and inner city decay. This latest book captures all this so well in these ninety-eight photos. The first thing you'll notice about the book (perhaps portfolio is a better word) is the size, an impressive 12.25 inches deep by 11.5 wide which gives the images the sort of display they deserve, helped also by the excellent layout and 175dpi printing. Divided into three photographic sections: Highway Landscape, Discarded Landscape and Impossibility of Ruins, this last section has nineteen remarkable shots of rust-belt inner city decay. Because of the vastness of this city blight there is more chance that the authorities will do something about it while the single abandoned highway gas station will stay just that--abandoned.

The Highway Landscape has the most photos and it is here that frequently a shot will jump off the page, it just seems so right. Page sixty-one has a beautiful night image of the Sands Restaurant in Fresno, a neon sign and other lettering perfectly framed within the image area or the gas station ruins in Vidal Junction, CA, nicely composed into thirds, sky, buildings and an earth foreground. Brouws, like photographers from the Farm Security Administration onwards, has a sharp eye for signage, either neon or painted on exterior walls, most of the photos in the book have a bit of lettering somewhere.

Approaching Nowhere seems a continuation of his two earlier books, 'Highway: America's Endless Dream' 1997 (ISBN 1556706049) which has a few of the same photos and 'Readymades' 2003 (ISBN 0811836770) a remarkable book of several hundred photos of what can be seen from the Nation's roads. All three books capture the contemporary texture of the outside 'nowhere' beautifully.

*Temporary/Obsolete/Abandoned/Derelict


***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

Editorial Review:

Evocative images of buildings and places, seen from the American road.

Like many who grew up during the spread of sprawl—with its predictable landscape of housing developments, shopping malls, interstate highways, and big-box construction—acclaimed photographer Jeff Brouws is drawn to places that still embody the vernacular past as well as to those that starkly portray the soulless, franchised American landscape. What began as cultural geography of Main Streets became a visual critique of the myth of upward mobility that created this car-centered, paved-over universe. Some images look outward to the edges of suburbia where sprawl is encroaching upon nature. Others turn inward, documenting the devastated inner cities. All the stunning color photographs reflect the complex beauty and desolation of visual life in our time. 100 color photographs.

The Last Steam Railroad in America

Thomas H Garver

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Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The Classic Chiaroscuro Photography of Winston Link 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

While my major interest in photography has always been the early-20th-century Camera Pictorialists, I've always loved the photographs of the late Winston Link. With their tremendous detail and chiaroscuro, they have qualities few photos have - drama and mood. Link was actually trained as an engineer but made his living as an industrial photographer. Even his commercial photographs had a strong narrative drive; they told the story of his clients' products. Because of his tremendous mastery of technique, Link was able to compose photographs with great spatial depth, and through well-placed illumination, bring them off. Link was long interested in steam locomotives but when a commercial assignment brought him to Virginia, he began a five-year-long project to document the Norfolk and Western railroad, the last steam railroad in america. While he shot the trains of the N & W in daylight - in both black and white and color - it was his night scenes that made Link a cult favorite among photographers. To capture the tremendous size of the locomotives and their ever-present steam, Link carefully composed each shot, blocking in where the locomotive would arrive and placing syncronized flashbulbs along the track to capture a steam locomotive at full cry. Winston Link was an American original who answered to his own muse - the steam locomotive.

Editorial Review:

From 1955 to 1959, O. Winston Link travelled up and down the Norfolk and Western railroad, taking pictures of the trains, the towns and the people who lived and worked there. This book contains day and night photographs, with a text on the railroad's activities, Link's achievement and his life.

Hearst Castle: The Biography of a Country House

Victoria Kastner

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst and his legendary California estate occupy a place in the public imagination through Orson Welles's Citizen Kane, but Kane's brooding Xanadu was merely a caricature of Hearst's exuberant castle at San Simeon. This new book sets the record straight and proves that, for once, truth is better than fiction.

Here for the first time is the real story of Hearst Castle, and of the productive 28-year relationship between Hearst and his architect, Julia Morgan, who collaborated on the magnificent 165-room estate set on 250,000 breathtaking acres near the remote seaside hamlet of San Simeon, halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Drawing on previously unpublished correspondence, and illustrated with never-before-seen historic photographs as well as more than 150 stunning color pictures, Victoria Kastner chronicles the evolution of this extraordinary hilltop, with its two spectacular pools and its astounding collections of fine art and antiques. Sprinkled throughout with stories of the famous parties hosted by Hearst and his companion, movie star Marion Davies, and their celebrated guests, this book brings to life America's most glamorous country house.

259 photographs, 157 in full color, 9 x 113/4"

American Barn (Motorbooks Classic)

Randy Leffingwell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Outstanding 5 out of 5 stars.
28 of 31 people found this review helpful.

As usual Randy's books are tops. His photography, sidebars and careful attention to details are unsurpassed. You can almost hear the hammers falling in the barn raising chapters. Recommended to all lovers of the vanishing scene.

Omniubus barn book 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This is the ultimate compendium of barn information. As a writer of a published barn book myself (Barn in the USA), I have seen my share of similar works. Most, however, fall short by showcasing old barns without placing them in context, or telling you more than you want to know about architectural considerations. Randy Leffingwell's book covers the historical and practical aspects of these rural structures, also presenting beautiful images without turning the book into a beauty contest. It is a treasure for historians and barnlovers alike.

Editorial Review:

This paperback reissue of Randy Leffingwell's popular The American Barn presents a colorful look at this classic American structure and its evolution through the years. Readers will travel from the East Coast to the American West, from the 1600s to modern times, and will relish the stunning photography that depicts everything the stone barns of hard-scrabble Maine to thoroughbred barns of lush bluegrass regions to traditional gambrel-roofed red barns of the Midwest. The detailed text examines how styles developed out of necessity and how the American barn contributed to the efficiencies and functionality of the farm. The American Barn is a trip back in time that give readers a fond look at an American icon.

25 Houses Under 1500 Square Feet

James Grayson Trulove

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Following up on the successful book 25 Houses under 2500 Square Feet, this title will continue to explore, though case studies, the joys of living in compact, well designed homes. The 25 houses presented in the book offer an extraordinary range of architectural solutions for designing functional yet exciting, dramatic living spaces within a small envelope. The houses will range in size from a few hundred square feet up to 1500 square feet of heated space. As with 25 Houses, projects will be located throughout the United States with some coming from Europe, South America, Asia and Australia.

Readers interested in building a primary residence, a weekend getaway, or a guest house will discover how architects, through the innovative use of common building materials and careful attention to space and light, are able to create dwellings that belie their small size.

The projects were selected for their excellence in design, innovative use of materials and methods of construction, each house comprises a case study that includes interior and exterior photography by some of the finest architectural photographers working today; drawings including site plans, details, and floor plans; and concise, informative text that highlights the design and technical aspects of the house.

Architects and architectural firms to be featured include: Lake/Flato, Olson Sunberg Kundig Allen, Archi-Tonics, Via Architecture, Dean/Wolf, Belmont Freeman,Hanrahan and Meyers, AC2, Frank Harmon.

Berlin Then and Now (Then & Now Thunder Bay)

Nick Gay

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

An excellent book from an excellent series 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

This book is a good size, and photos are given full priority on each page. It's kept nice and simple with old on the left, new on the right, and with just as much informed commentary as you'd need running along beneath.

Only a few of the 'then' pics are from the 50s and 60s; the majority show the Berlin streets as they were before the devastation of the Second World War, and as such are as fascinating as looking at pictures of ancient Rome.

An excellent book from an excellent series.

Editorial Review:

Hitler’s ascendancy and defeat transformed a stable, confident Berlin into a ruined city, fractured by post-WWII political divisions. Only with the 1989 destruction of the Wall and the subsequent Unification Treaty did Berlin begin to regain its cosmopolitan standing as one of the world’s great cities. With highlights that include then and now images of the Reichstag, the Brandenburg Gate, the Berlin Wall, and Checkpoint Charlie, one can experience the tumultuous events of the city’s modern history through archival and contemporary photography. This historical look at Berlin's ever-changing fortunes is a must-have for WWII history buffs, and offers a rare glimpse into the city's fascinating metamorphosis.

Civil War Battlefields Then and Now (Then & Now Thunder Bay)

James Campi

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Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Photography and the Transformation of the Civil War 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Campi's "Civil War Battlefields Then & Now" is a book of photographs in which Civil War Battlefields and sites as they appeared at the time of the conflict are contrasted with photographs of the sites today. The Civil War era photos are, of course in black-and white. The modern photographs are in color and were taken especially for this book.

The book is presented chronologically beginning with Fort Sumter, South Carolina and proceeding through Appomattox Court House, Ford's Theatre and the dedication of the first Civil War Battlefield Monuments at First Manassas on June 10, 1865. The photos cover the major campaigns of the Civil War on land and sea including Fort Sumter, McClellan's Peninsula Campaign, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Stone's River, Vicksburg, Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, the Atlanta Campaign, Grant's Overland Campaign, Petersburg, Nashville, and Appomattox. There are no photographs of Shiloh and none of Andersonville. The book is accompanied by a short running textual commentary which summarizes the events leading to the historical photographs.

Many of the historic photographs, such as those of Antietam and Gettysburg, will be familiar to students of the Civil War. But it is valuable to have a short collection of photographs from the entire War in a single attractive volume and to be able to compare them to current pictures of the sites.

I found this book an excellent way of stimulating reflection about the Civil War. The contrasting photographs show eloquently how our Civil War Battlefields have been transformed from places of violence to Hallowed Ground which offer the opportunity for peace, meditation, and contemplation. The book encouraged me to think again about the purpose of the war, the importance of a united country, and the vision which still needs to be realized fully of a Nation which offers freedom, liberty, and equality to all regardless of race.

This book doesn't take long to read but it can be revisited with pleasure many times. It is a good book for browsing and would make an excellent gift for those loved ones on your gift list with an interest in the Civil War.

Editorial Review:

As a defining event in the history of the United States, the Civil War has no equal. Civil War Battlefields Then and Now looks at the battlegrounds where it all took place, covering the broad sweep of events from the Southern capture of Fort Sumter to the Battles of Gettysburg and Appomattox. Historical illustrations and archival photographs of these sacred locations are compared with specially commissioned photographs of the battlefields as they are today, accompanied by descriptive and interesting text.