Landscape: The World's Top Photographers, And The Stories Behind Their Greatest Images

by Terry Hope

The World's Top Landscape is packed with shots of beautiful landscapes. The work of contributors such as Charlie Waite, Michael Busselle, Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Jim Brandenburg, and the late Galen Rowell graces the pages of magazines such as National Geographic and Geo, and is exhibited worldwide. In The World's Top Landscape, they and other top photographers tell the stories behind some of their favorite images. With anecdotes, tips, and technical details, this book gives a fascinating insight into the creative processes behind the photographs. There is also a brief biography of each photographer, with a bibliography of his or her published work. The book features stunning images of some of the world's most beautiful natural landscapes, from the Scottish Highlands to Monument Valley, and includes forests, mountains, oceans, deserts, and meadows.

Genres: Photography, Nonfiction

176 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2003

Reviews

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

The short bios for each photographer are fascinating, I love hearing how people get into this kind of work, what they are trying to achieve, what they love about it. The bios were different enough that they definitely reflected the photographer's themselves, as did their descriptions of how they achieved each shot--the practicalities of that were awesome. I love photography and taking pictures, but there is no way I have the passion and determination to do what these folks do. Knowing the amount of work scouting locations, waiting for lighting conditions, hiking through snow and rain and insects and sitting for hours to get these shots make them even more inspiring, as does knowing the photographer's attempts to communicate a vision and often a spirituality through their photographs.

The photographs are stunning, though not all as big as I would have liked -- and where they are, they often straddle two pages which I also hate. Fill up one page. Don't put the binding crease through a third.

What really got me? This is the Anglophone world's top photographers, being a majority American with a sprinkling of Brits and Aussies, with one Swede and one Japanese photographer included. It is almost all men, and all white--even when it mentions their wives as partners. I suppose this reflects those who have the means to get into this kind of photography, or any photography before the advent of the digital age and perhaps even now. Still, I am sure amazing photographers can be found on every continent just as I am sure that their histories and visions would be quite different. For what it is, it's fine. But let's not confine the world to America and the UK.

[Stephen Coates · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book follows a well-established format: select a number of top artists in a field, in this case landscape photography, get permissions to reproduce a select number of each’s works, write a description of each work to accompany a brief biography of the artists and hopefully sell enough copies to cover the costs and make a profit. That being said, I haven’t reviewed many other books on landscape photography to make any sort of comparison, but I will say that this one certainly works. Needless to say, the photographs are excellent and a few are breathtaking, at least to my taste. What was revealing to me was just how much effort landscape photographers have to take, carrying very heavy equipment, camping in remote locations for weeks to catch the subject in the right light and then spend in the darkroom applying filters and the like – the book was published in 2002 when digital photography was much more rudimentary than it is today. One photograph, by Michael Fatali, is of a set of geysers in full steam on private property somewhere in the southwest desert of the USA which, having changed hands, is inaccessible to anyone. A natural landform such as this would, anywhere else, be in a national park.

Perhaps the major success of the book was, for me at least, it has prompted me to search my local libraries for books featuring the works of many of the photographers featured within.

[Brett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. The short bio for each photographer provides insights into the similarities in technique between many of the photographers, and distinct differences in others, and their motivations. Most of the photographs are delightful, though I thought the small size of quite a lot of them meant they lacked impact, and seemed ironic when the photographers were espousing the value of their large format cameras, for capturing ultimate detail.