On Planet Earth: Travels in an Unfamiliar Land

by Jan Staller

On Planet Travels in an Unfamiliar Land collects Jan Staller's strangely seductive photographs from locations across the United States and around the world.-from abandoned factories to military test sites, from high-tech water-purification plants to heavy machinery that looks like it fell from outer space. Staller's square-format and panoramic photographs reveal bizarre and forgotten constructions of industrial society, set against a symphony of color and light.

A sense of mystery pervades Staller's ordinary building devices and machine parts take on the aura of Surrealist sculptures, while common construction sites echo the sacred grounds of ancient civilizations. Using long exposures and a combination of light sources-often photographing at dawn or dusk-Staller produces photographs that are breathtakingly rich in color and intensity.

Complementing the images in On Planet Earth is a narrative by Luc Sante, who shares Staller's fascination with urban and industrial wastelands, the history they contain, and the mysteries they conceal. Together, Staller's photographs and Sante's text offer a stimulating, Technicolor tour of the unknown at the edge of the contemporary landscape.

Genres: Photography

95 pages, Hardcover

First published September 30, 1997

Reviews

[Eric]

Photos mainly of industrial things in the wilderness. Strangely beautiful. Many long exposure shots and night shots.

[s2artM]

Really beautiful work made in time when mixed lighintg source were areal challenge for us all i.e. using film, drop dead gorgeous none the less.