THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 10, 1995 TAG: 9512120438
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY JUNE ARNEY
LENGTH: Long : 128 lines
Books are always a good choice for those empty spaces on your holiday gift list. This year's coffee-table offerings are especially appealing. Here is a sampling:
Mountain Light: In Search of the Dynamic Landscape (Sierra Club Books. $25) is a compilation of the majesty that wilderness photographer Galen Rowell captures in his lens - a sunrise in Nepal, a lynx walking in alpine flowers, a storm playing over the California Palisades. His images are sometimes haunting, sometimes ethereal, always powerful. This best seller, first published in 1986, is back for its 10th anniversary, fresh with a new preface. Written in first person, it is part travelogue, part photography text and part a celebration of wild places.
For breathtaking mountaineering, see Summits: Climbing the Seven Summits Solo (Clarkson Potter, $65). Here, climber Robert Mads Anderson resolved to become the first person in the world to conquer the highest peak on each of the earth's continents. Only Everest proved too much for him. His determination is fierce. The joy in his triumphs is contagious and his photographs are awesome. This is one of those books that cries out to be picked up and browsed.
For a different kind of photographic journey, try One More River To Cross: An African American Photograph Album (Harcourt Brace, $40). Walter Dean Myers traces the lives of black Americans through the past 150 years. His compelling words can be read in minutes, yet the more than 170 stunning black-and-white photos, culled from private collections, sear into unforgettable images of slavery and freedom, success and racism.
For the water lover on your list, Harbors of Enchantment: A Yachtman's Anthology (W.W. Norton, $50) is a place of serenity in a chaotic world. Page after page of captivating coastline and tranquil harbors whisk readers to lands both exotic and enchanting. Visit Tahiti, Bali, Patagonia and Crete, or chart the course for another destination. Then count the shades of blue-green water once you get there.
City At Sea (Naval Institute Press, $39.95), by Vice Admiral Yogi Kaufman, is a chance to travel aboard an aircraft carrier without any of the inconveniences. In dazzling color, Kaufman and his photographer son, Steve, capture life on and below deck: the F/A-18 Hornet launches, a trip to the dentist, a radioman checking communications equipment. From the glamorous to the routine, sailors on seven different carriers share their stories, and the cameras catch it all.
For indoor sight-seeing, Parish-Hadley: Sixty Years of American Design (Little, Brown, $50) takes you to the libraries, garden rooms and bedrooms of mansions and estates across the country and beyond, even into the Kennedy White House. Romanticism, elegance, simplicity, surprising textures and lighting all blend in a collection of lavish photographs - a decorator's delight.
For even grander artworks, there is The Glory of Venice: Ten Centuries of Imagination and Invention (Terrail, $24.95). This is a journey through the churches, palaces and museums that radiate the magnificence of this Italian city. This soft cover, coffee-table sized book, is perfect for art lovers with 137 color pictures spanning 10 centuries.
Focusing on the secrets of black African art with more than 170 color illustrations is Black Africa: Masks, Sculpture, Jewelry (Terrail, $24.95). From dance masks to dolls, from the beautiful to the fearsome, these pictures and words explore the mythology that brought this traditional art into being. The works are grouped by theme rather than geography, so that you see bronze and ivory and later occult art and gold. Within these pages are the roots of techniques that modern artists later took for their own.
For a look at a different kind of art, there is Jazz: Photographs of the Masters (Artisan, $40). Two hundred of the greatest living jazz musicians come together in a classy presentation of black-and-white duotone portraits by photographer Jacques Lowe. Most get a full page of tribute and a separate photo page. The pictures are warm and intimate, the anecdotes rich.
Sinatra: A Portrait of the Artist (Turner Publishing, $29.95) pays tribute to a single singer and actor who has touched the lives of several generations. Author Ray Coleman has collected more than 100 photographs of Sinatra dating from his childhood in Hoboken, N.J., to today and crafted a detailed biography showing the artist as a four-time husband, a father of three who wished he'd had more children and a man fickle politically. Sinatra, who turns 80 on Dec. 12, transcends time and space with his music.
A must for gun lovers is Steel Canvas: The Art of American Arms (Random House, $65). This is a place where firepower turns elegant, a place of gold-, silver- and platinum-inlaying on steel, of carved ivory and mother-of-pearl. In 384 pages brimming with more than 450 photographs and illustrations, R.L. Wilson offers a comprehensive history of America's engravers and embellishers of guns dating from the 1700s to modern day.
The Sports Photography of Robert Riger (Random House, $45), a powerful collection of black-and-white images, is for the sports guy or girl on your holiday list. Every turn of the page reveals Riger's passion for sports and the artist's eye that won him a regular place in Sports Illustrated back in the 1950s. Each picture is a world unto itself.
Shall We Dance: The Life of Ginger Rogers (St. Martin's Press, $19.95) is the first book to celebrate Rogers' life since her death on April 25, 1995, at 83. Her dancing partnership with Fred Astaire suspended time. But she also was an actress with more than 70 films to her credit. Here's a chance to relive the glamour that was her life.
Then: Alexander Liberman Photographs 1925-1995 (Random House, $65) records in luminous black-and-white photographs the remarkable life of Alexander Liberman, a Russian educated in London and Paris who became art director of Vogue magazine and editorial director of all Conde Nast magazines. An eminent painter and sculptor, Liberman cavorted with a cast of characters that included Baryshnikov, Brodsky, Chanel, Picasso, Dior and Truman Capote. The preface is by Calvin Tomkins of The New Yorker; design by Charles Churchward of Vogue. MEMO: June Arney is a staff writer. ILLUSTRATION: Photos
SINATRA: A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST
A detailed biography shows the artist as a four-time husband and a
father of three who wishes he had had more children.
SHALL WE DANCE: THE LIFE OF GINGER ROGERS
This is the first book to celebrate the life of the actress and
dancer since her death on April 25, 1995.
JAZZ: PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE MASTERS
Terri Lynne Carrington is one of 200 jazz musicians to come together
in this rich volume.
ONE MORE RIVER TO CROSS
An intimate collection of photographs documents the African American
experience.
by CNB