shelved at: 998 : Landscape

shelved at: 998 : Landscape

My very favorite books creatively combine images and words, meaning one does not take precedence over the other; one does not serve the other. Images and words work together to create meaning, to convey ideas. This is one of those books, which combines essays and captions by landscape architect James Corner with aerial photographs by Alex S. MacLean and illustrations by Corner. It's as if one element is not enough to convey ideas of measurement and humans making their mark on the land, specifically the United States; words only would ring hollow, photos only would turn the undertaking into a gallery show, and the diagrams by themselves would be slightly confusing. All together, they create something unique, thoughtful, surprising, and beautiful. ( )

This book will change the way you look at and think about landscape. Technically, it's a landscape architecture book, and the essays that deal with that subject are excellent. James Corner is one of the best landscape architects/theorists around, and his writing is though-provoking, lucid and enjoyable to read. He draws an wonderful comparison between this work and Le Corbusier's sightseeing flights over North Africa in the 1930's. But without a doubt, the reason to buy this book are the photographs that document the unexpected beauty that arises out of the interaction between man and nature. The incongruities of landscape, juxtaposed against the linear certainty of the Land Ordinance Act grid, farm plots and other common interventions make for stunning photography.
There are also little subplots, such as creative reuses of already built spaces (tennis courts as parking lots & football field yard lines over a baseball diamond), and the similarity of totally unrelated natural forms (who knew that from 7,000 feet, cracked pond ice looks like microscopic images of streptococcal bacteria?).

There are dozens of other little thoughts I could include, and one of most remarkable things about this book is that the photogrpahs allow the reader to draw on his or her own knowledge to make connections and interpertations. There's no right or wrong way to see these things, which makes it universally rewarding and enjoyable. ( )