This book takes a fresh look at the crucial twenty-four hours of the Allied landing of June 1944 and revisits the beaches of Normandy where it took place. Today, the landscape is still crisscrossed by the bunkers and anti-tank defenses of the Atlantic Wall, and by the infrastructure brought in by the allies. Like dinosaurs, they contrast starkly with the quiet beaches and the lush countryside, and bring to mind the thousands of lives lost on that day. Richard Bougaardt is a young and talented photographer who has been interested in WWII since his childhood. He has made an impressive photographic study of the sites of the landing and his images are both beautiful and strangely haunting. Being roughly the same age as the British, American and Canadian soldiers, who fought and often died there in the name of freedom and, of course, the German troops who had felt safe behind their defenses, gave him a special empathy with his subject. Richard Bougaardt wrote the commentary and edited the personal recollections of soldiers on both sides, and of the French civilians who waited and hoped. Whenever possible, the modern images are matched with archive pictures showing the same structures or locations in 1944. The book is a moving tribute to human spirit and to a beautiful and tragic part of France.
Listening to the River: Seasons in the American West
Listening to the River is a celebration of anonymous places where we can still find nature’s beauty. Robert Adams first visited these particular locations as a boy, when the West seemed unchanging. Now in his fifties, he returns to them with the affection of a longtime acquaintance. The book records hushed walks when irrelevancies are forgotten, when sunlight makes the fields, hills, and roads new.
Adams has chosen twelve poems by William Stafford to accompany the pictures. Both photographer and poet observe a practice of quiet in the out-of-doors, and both discover there a promise.
This is an optimistic book, though not a sentimental one: a number of the photographs record views of the suburban West. “Any tree in the path of development appears to have an uncertain future,” Adams observes. Listening to the River affirms, however, that trees and other elements of nature are ultimately protected. “Part of what their beauty means,” says the photographer, “is that they are safe.”
In 1989 Adams spoke at the Philadelphia Museum of Art about his enjoyment of the landscape, citing as an example his experiences at rural crossroads on the plains: “Sometimes there doesn’t seem to be anything there at all– just two roads, four fields, and sky. Small things, however, can become important– a lark or a mailbox or sunflowers. And if I wait I may see the architecture– the roads and the fields and the sky. Were you and I to drive the prairie together, and the day turned out to be a good one, we might not say much. We might get out of the truck at a crossroads, stretch, walk a little ways, and then walk back. Maybe the lark would sing. Maybe we would stand for a while, all views to the horizon, all roads interesting. We might find there a balance of form and openness, even of community and freedom. It would be the world as we had hoped, and we would recognize it together.”
Backyard Design: Making the Most of the Space Around Your House
With more than 200 beautiful color photos, BACKYARD DESIGN is a complete resource for yard design, planning, and construction. The first section contains case studies on 20 different yards and describes the problems, the solutions, and how to put the plans into action. The second section shows how to translate design ideas into reality in one’s own yard. Using more than 40 step-by-step drawings, it explains a wide range of projects.
Backyard Design: Making the Most of the Space Around Your House