Photography – Schizanthus Nerd

Contemporary Sand Sculpture – Barbara Purchia & E. Ashley Rooney

During my recent wanderings, I found a duck shaped snowball maker. I bought it for my mother, who loves ducks, despite the fact that if it ever snows where we live it’ll mean there’s something seriously wrong with the weather.

Sans snow, we took this new toy to the beach and proceeded to make some pretty funny duck adjacent lumps of sand. I was especially proud of our best result, which actually looked like a duck (if someone had amputated most of its bill).

Needless to say, if I was to attempt to create a sand sculpture, the result would be abstract at best.

You won’t find the sandcastles from your childhood in this book. These sand sculptures aren’t constructed with a mere bucket and shovel. The tools of this trade can include “bulldozers, pneumatic tampers, generators, cranes, front-end loaders, and huge water pumps to carry water to the top”. Todd Vander Pluym, president of Sand Sculptors International (SSI), has even created a castle that survived a 6.2 earthquake!

Although there are only two ingredients – sand and water – the design possibilities are endless. With imagination and creativity, some engineering and design knowledge, and possession of the right tools, today’s sand artist creates ephemeral, incredible, complex, and “how did they do that with only sand and water” artwork.

My brain stayed on ‘WOW!’ for the entire book so it’s difficult to choose favourites. Currently, I’m obsessed with:

Guy-Olivier Deveau’s Bleeding

David Ducharme and Marielle Heessels’ My Better Half

Matt Long’s SHARK!

Jeff Strong’s Consuming Pastime

I’m sure my favourites will change every time I revisit this book. I need to find a sand sculpture competition so I can see the artists at work.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Schiffer Publishing for the opportunity to read this book.

Once Upon a Blurb

Part performance art and part engineering, sand sculpture has become amazingly sophisticated as artists explore the boundaries of their skill with sand as a medium. Within a very short time, a sculptor can create an awesome, thought-provoking experience that will completely vanish after a few weeks. The photographs are all that’s left. Barbara Purchia and E. Ashley Rooney take you on a round-the-world tour of sandscapes showcasing a dazzling array of sculptural figures, forms, and styles. Behind-the-scenes interviews with the sand masters reveal what motivates them and how they approach their art. Todd Vander Pluym, the world’s premier sand artist and president of Sand Sculptors International (SSI), shares a contemporary history of sand sculpture, and renowned international sculptor Kirk Rademaker describes how he built a new life around this ephemeral medium.The images of these art pieces will have you wanting to stick your toes in the sand!

28 December, 2022 by Schizanthus Nerd Categories: ReviewTags: 5 stars, NetGalley, Photography, Schiffer Publishing Leave a comment

Atlas of Abandoned Places – Oliver Smith

To step into an abandoned place is to cross a kind of threshold into the past – to time travel from the present day to the instant that people departed.

I love abandoned places photography. I enjoy poring over the photos for evidence of the lives of the people who used to inhabit the spaces. There always seems to be a haunted beauty attached to these places, as they gradually erode and nature reclaims them.

I’ve come to expect books about abandoned places to showcase a photographer’s favourite sites. This is the first abandoned places book I’ve read that’s been written by a travel writer. The images are stock photos, which meant I didn’t get get to feel like I was tagging along with someone who may have had to climb fences and find ways to get into buildings undetected. However, it also meant that, rather than the purple prose I’m used to reading in abandoned places books, the information that’s presented here captured my attention just as much as the photography.

Separated into parts by geography – Europe, the Americas and the Caribbean, the Middle East and the Caucasus, Asia, Oceania and Africa – this book explores fifty abandoned places, from trains, palaces and a theme park to entire towns. Each four page entry contains photos and a map, along with information about the history, current state and any future plans for the site.

I most want to explore:

The Paris Catacombs, not the 1.6km (1 mile) tourist attraction but the network an area of about 320km (200 miles) that haven’t been entirely mapped yet. I want to see the places that remain undiscovered and unmarked by graffiti.

City Hall Station, New York.

Two hundred policemen were called to hold back the curious crowds, and the Mayor of New York took the controls of the inaugural train. He had so much fun he refused to hand them back to the driver.

Ciudad Perdida (meaning ‘Lost City’), Colombia. You’ll need to hike for four days to get there but the journey sounds as amazing as the destination.

Organized tours see participants traversing rushing rivers on rope bridges, passing waterfalls where hummingbirds dart through the humid air, and sleeping in hammocks listening to the night-time symphony of the forest.

Aniva Lighthouse, at the tip of Sakhalin, Russia. It’s desolate and remote, the perfect place to get lost in a book.

There’s a lot of very interesting information in this book. I’m always on the lookout for fun facts and all things strange and unusual. I found those here too.

For £99, you can buy your very own knighthood. It’s for Sealand, a country that no others recognise, but it’s probably your only chance to be knighted.

Bodie in California is a typo. It’s named after W.S. Bodey, a prospector from New York. If you visit, fair warning: don’t souvenir any trinkets you come across.

‘The Curse of Bodie’ goes that objects stolen from the ghost town have brought tragedy and even death to their new homes. Items are still regularly returned to Bodie in the post, with notes of repentance from sorry thieves.

The grand opening of the Orpheum Theatre in New Bedford, Massachusetts happened the day the Titanic sank.

New York’s “City Hall Station provided the inspiration for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ lair.”

For places that seem lifeless, their lesson is that – in some form or other – life goes on.

Thank you so much to Hachette Australia for the opportunity to read this book.

Once Upon a Blurb

Explore the wonders that the world forgot with award-winning travel writer Oliver Smith – from breathtaking buildings with a dark past to decaying reminders of more troubled times.

The globe is littered with forgotten monuments, their beauty matched only by the secrets of their past.

A glorious palace lies abandoned by a fallen dictator. A grand monument to communism sits forgotten atop a mountain. Two never-launched space shuttles slowly crumble, left to rot in the middle of the desert. Explore these and many more of the world’s lost wonders in this atlas like no other.

With remarkable stories, bespoke maps and stunning photography of fifty forsaken sites, Atlas of Abandoned Places travels the world beneath the surface; the sites with stories to tell, the ones you won’t find in any guidebook.

Award-winning travel writer Oliver Smith is your guide on a long-lost path, shining a light on the places that the world forgot.

11 October, 202212 October, 2022 by Schizanthus Nerd Categories: ReviewTags: 5 stars, Abandoned Places, Hachette, Mitchell Beazley, Octopus Publishing Group, Photography 2 Comments

Cities of the Dead – Yolanda Zappaterra

I inherited my Nan’s fascination for cemeteries. She instilled in me a reverence for the people whose tombstones I was reading. Horror movies gave me my dread/hope that one day I’ll witness a hand rising from a grave or hear some grave bells ringing.

This book introduces you to a selection of beautiful cemeteries from around the world. For some, their beauty lies in their location, overlooking the ocean or surrounded by trees. Some hold unique cultural or historical significance. Many are the final resting place of people who found fame in life.

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Bonaventure (meaning ‘Good Fortune’) Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia

Each entry includes the history of the cemetery and photos that made me want to visit most of them, but there are also tales of the horror of being buried alive and bodysnatching. If you know me, you know I love fun facts. This book has plenty. Some of my favourites are:

🪦 The headstone of Susan B. Anthony is covered with plexiglass around election time because there’s a tradition of people placing their ‘I Voted’ stickers on it.

🪦 The Sophie Calle installation at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York is a “twenty-five-year artwork entitled Here Lie the Secrets of the Visitors of Green-Wood Cemetery in which people can write down their thoughts or secrets and place them in a white marble ‘tombstone’.”

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Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York

🪦 During summer, movies screenings are held on the Douglas Fairbanks Lawn at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. Movies shown there include Night of the Living Dead.

🪦 Amongst the tombstones in Okunoin Cemetery, Mount Kōya, Japan, you’ll see some more unusual memorials:

a giant termite’s nest that acts as a pest control company’s memorial to all the termites their products have exterminated. Puffer fish that have fallen foul of chefs’ knives, a giant coffee cup, a large space rocket erected by aerospace company ShinMaywa Industries and memorials to the staff of companies such as Nissan, Toyota and Kirin beer all form part of the curious mix.

If you’re superstitious, you may want to avoid this cemetery all together.

Nearby, housed in a small wooden cage near the Gobyobashi Bridge, the equally curious Miroku Stone supposedly weighs one’s sins as you try to lift it from a lower to an upper platform, but more scary is the Sugatami-no-Ido, or Well of Reflections, found just beyond the Nakanohashi Bridge, close to the shrine to the bodhisattva Asekaki Jizo. Legend has it that if you look into this tiny wooden well but don’t see your reflection, you’re fated to die within three years. Probably best to stay on the safe side and avoid it – which might also be good advice for the Zenni Jochi stone memorial to a Buddhist nun of which it is said, if you place your ear you can hear the cries of people in Hell.

Naturally, this is the cemetery I most want to explore.

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Okopowa Jewish Cemetery in Warsaw, Poland

I found the section at the end of the book that explored symbolism in cemeteries particularly interesting.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Frances Lincoln, an imprint of Quarto Publishing Group, for the opportunity to read this book.

Once Upon a Blurb

Cities of the Dead takes us on a tour of memorial sites, ranging from monastic settlements to grand cathedrals, Shinto shrines to Gothic chapels, tombs and crypts. Enjoy tales of myths and monsters, grave-robbers, pilgrimages, spiritual retreats, remembrance and community. Marvel in cemeteries with a hundred thousand to a handful of graves which feature famous headstones, weeping angels, ocean views, woodlands, thousands of glowing lanterns and a tomb of poets.

From London’s famous Highgate Cemetery, which houses famous names from Karl Marx to Malcolm McLaren, George Eliot to Christina Rosetti, to Hawaii’s breathtaking Valley of the Temples, this book spans the globe to bring you the most fascinating, intriguing and evocative cemeteries across cultures and continents.

Together with evocative images, the stories behind these notable burial sites bring these sanctuaries to life, detailing the features that make them special, highlighting both similarities and differences between time periods, religions and cultures, and showing how cemeteries are about and for the living as much as the dead.

24 September, 2022 by Schizanthus Nerd Categories: ReviewTags: 4 stars, Frances Lincoln, NetGalley, Photography, Quarto Publishing Group Leave a comment

Atlas of Forgotten Places – Travis Elborough

Maps – Martin Brown

I love books that explore abandoned places. There’s something hauntingly beautiful about seeing nature reclaiming these areas. I always feel a tinge of sadness as well, being witness to once majestic places falling into disrepair.

This book’s abandoned places are divided into five sections: vacant properties, unsettled situations, dilapidated destinations, journeys ended and obsolete institutions. The locations, covering most continents (a notable exception is Australia), are varied. They include an orphanage, a nuclear power plant, a lighthouse, palaces, hotels, castles, a theme park, a train graveyard and a submarine base.

The history of the locations are accompanied by maps and photographs. Because I love abandoned places so much, I wanted more photos, particularly those that showed the interiors.

I knew about a number of these places already but some were new to me. The one I’m most likely to remember years from now is Akampene Island, Uganda. Women in traditional Bakiga society who became pregnant out of wedlock were exiled there as punishment. The island only had “two trees that bore no edible fruit and offered nothing in the way of shelter”. Most girls had not been taught to swim and to be marooned there meant almost certain death, unless they somehow managed to escape or were rescued.

My favourite photos were of Camelot Theme Park’s Knightmare rollercoaster in Chorley, Lancashire,

the City Hall Subway Station in New York

and the Gary City Methodist Church in Indiana.

Here then is a compendium of the misplaced and the neglected. Ruins, ancient and modern, beautiful, ugly and appalling, and in varying states of appreciation and restoration, or lack thereof. The ungotten and the forgotten no one remembers. Abandonment is not a cause to give up all hope but the opposite, if anything, encouraging us all to think longer and harder about the world to come and what might be worth salvaging from the wreckage.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and White Lion Publishing, an imprint of Quarto Publishing Group, for the opportunity to read this book.

Once Upon a Blurb

Explore the places that time forgot. Abandoned, mysterious, sleeping monuments around the world have been relegated to the margins of history, pushed off the map and out of sight.

From ancient ruins and crumbling castles to more recent relics – an art deco New York subway station, a Soviet ghost town in the Arctic Circle, a flooded Thai mall teeming with aquatic life – Travis Elborough takes you on a journey into these strange, overlooked and disappearing worlds and immortalises their fates.

Original maps and stunning colour photography accompany Travis Elborough’s moving historic and geographic accounts of each site. The featured locations are a stark reminder of what was, and the accounts in this investigative book help to bring their stories back to life, telling us what happened, when and why, and to whom.

The book features 40 sites, including:

Santa Claus, Arizona, USA: A festive tourist resort turned ghost town deep in the desert where once you could meet Santa Claus any day of the year;

Crystal Palace Subway, London, UK: One of the city’s best-kept secrets is an underground, cathedral-like relic from where many Victorian commuters bustled through;

Montserrat, West Indies: The small Caribbean island with a population of 5,000 that was evacuated when its volcano erupted in 1995. The volcano is still active and nearly half the island remains a designated exclusion zone;

Balaklava Submarine Base, Crimea: The former top-secret Soviet submarine base that was kept off all official maps and known as Object 825 GTS;

Volterra Psychiatric Hospital, Tuscany, Italy: Once dubbed ‘the place of no return’, this long-closed lunatic asylum once housed 6,000 patients who were never allowed to leave.

9 January, 2022 by Schizanthus Nerd Categories: ReviewTags: 4 stars, Abandoned Places, NetGalley, Photography, Quarto Publishing Group, White Lion Publishing Leave a comment

Wings Over Water – Wings for Wetlands

Approximately seven out of ten birds that migrate over North America rely on prairie wetlands during part of their life cycle

This book was my introduction to America’s prairie wetlands, which span “parts of five states – Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa – and three Canadian provinces – Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.”

This book and the IMAX 3D movie Wings Over Water are aimed at awakening the continent and the world to the need to protect the prairie wetlands, North America’s greatest ecological asset. The prairies are key to abundant birds, clean water, and sufficient grasslands to keep our continent healthy. Without them, we face a future of depleted water resources, decreased water quality, ruinous flooding, and a greatly diminished ability to sequester carbon. The implications for the continent’s bird populations are even more bleak.

The film runs for 44 minutes, a fraction of the over 220 hours of footage that was shot. Although a number of birds are included in this book, the film focuses on three: mallards, sandhill cranes and yellow warblers. It doesn’t hurt that it’s being narrated by Michael Keaton.

I’ve done this backwards, reading the companion book prior to seeing the film. I expect I will appreciate the behind the scenes information more once I’ve watched the film.

I’m hoping the facts about the birds and their life cycles that I was keen to learn from this book will be presented on screen. There were a few, just not as many as I would have liked. My favourite fun fact was that yellow warblers weigh “less than three sheets of paper”.

I adored the photos in this book and had trouble choosing a favourite, so instead I’ll share one each of the three stars of the film.

When I was growing up, the only times I experienced IMAX was at the IMAX Theatre at Dreamworld in Queensland when my family did the theme park hop while we were on holiday. I was always mesmerised by them and still remember one scene where my stomach did the first drop of a rollercoaster lurch as the camera suddenly dipped into a gaping canyon. I couldn’t get enough.

I haven’t seen an IMAX film for years but definitely want to find a way to watch Wings Over Water. If this book is any indication, the cinematography is going to be breathtaking. Don’t believe me? Check out the trailer!

You may also want to have a wander around the film’s website.

Marvel at the richness of this northern kingdom for wildlife. Then find your own place in the movement to save the stunning prairie wetlands of North America.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Girl Friday Productions and Flashpoint for the opportunity to read this book.

Once Upon a Blurb

A beautiful, photo-rich companion book to the internationally distributed IMAX film of the same name, Wings Over Water celebrates the prairie wetlands of North America and the birds that live and breed in this critical habitat.

Covering 300,000 square miles stretching from Canada through Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa, the prairie wetlands are one of Earth’s most important, yet little-known, ecosystems. More than half of all North American migratory waterfowl and 96 species of songbirds breed and nest there, and more than 60 percent of the continent’s ducks are hatched there. Wings Over Water immerses readers in this awe-inspiring, essential place, using more than 300 breathtaking photos and inspiring essays from some of the North America’s foremost conservationists to shine a spotlight on these critical breeding grounds and the necessity of preserving these threatened environments.

Wings Over Water is a joint venture of the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation, which works to secure the future of hunting, fishing, and land management; Ducks Unlimited Inc. and Ducks Unlimited Canada, the world’s largest nonprofit organisations dedicated to conserving North America’s disappearing wetland and waterfowl habitats; and the National Audubon Society, the world’s oldest nonprofit environmental organisations dedicated to bird conservation.

26 December, 2021 by Schizanthus Nerd Categories: ReviewTags: 4.5 stars, Flashpoint, Girl Friday Productions, NetGalley, Photography Leave a comment

Capturing Snowflakes – Kenneth Libbrecht & Rachel Wing

A snowflake appears when water vapor in the air converts directly into ice without first becoming liquid water. As more vapor condenses onto a nascent snow crystal, it grows and develops, and that is when its ornate patterning emerges.

We’re all familiar with stellar dendrites, six sided snowflakes, but there are many other different shapes, including diamond-dust crystals (hexagonal prisms), columns, needles and triangles.

It’s true that no two snowflakes are alike. The difference shapes form as a result of variations in temperature and humidity, along with the path they take through the clouds. The higher the humidity, the more complex the design. Some snowflakes are even asymmetrical.

Snowflakes are being manufactured in the atmosphere at an astounding rate – from snowfall data, we calculate around a million billion crystals each second.

This book showcases some gorgeous snowflakes, both those generated naturally and designer snowflakes, those created under laboratory conditions. You will discover how snowflakes are formed and what conditions create which types of snowflakes. You will learn how to preserve a snowflake in resin, how to make paper snowflakes and how to photograph them.

It takes fifteen minutes to an hour to grow a good-sized snowflake. In this time about one hundred thousand nearby droplets will have evaporated away to supply the water vapor to make just one snowflake.

I’ve never seen snow but if I ever get the chance you can bet I’ll be bringing this book with me so I can identify the different shapes and photograph the experience.

My favourite photograph was taken by Jackie Novak. While I loved the details of many of the other photographs, the composition of this one stood out.

Fun fact: Ken was the snowflake consultant for Frozen, so you won’t see any four or eight sided snowflakes there.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Voyageur Press, an imprint of Quarto Publishing Group – Cool Springs Press, for the opportunity to read this book.

Once Upon a Blurb

As much a work of art as a testament to science, this revised, hardcover edition of the best-selling The Art of the Snowflake (now Capturing Snowflakes) includes a laser-cut silver snowflake ornament in its cover and showcases 430+ images of snowflakes captured by the photo-microscope of the world’s leading expert on the subject, Kenneth Libbrecht, a professor of physics at Caltech who also served as a science consultant for Disney’s Frozen movies.

The snow may seem unvaried to the naked eye, but the microscope reveals an amazing menagerie of beautiful crystalline forms. Building on the pioneering work of Wilson Bentley (1865-1931), Libbrecht has developed techniques for capturing images of snow crystals in unprecedented detail. While wondering at the hundreds of exquisite snowflake portraits, find:

The science behind snowflakes, including how they form on a molecular level and the complex process that guarantees each one’s uniqueness

Field notes from Libbrecht’s photographic expeditions to the frozen north

The taxonomy of snowflakes and examples of each type: simple plates and prisms, columns and needles, capped columns, sectored plates, stellar plates, stellar dendrites, triangular crystals, double plates, split plates, split stars, and even rare twelve-branched snowflakes

Quotations about the wonder of snowflakes and nature from Aristotle, Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, and more.

This book is a breathtaking look at the works of art that melt in an instant.

2 September, 20212 September, 2021 by Schizanthus Nerd Categories: ReviewTags: 4 stars, Cool Springs Press, NetGalley, Photography, Quarto Publishing Group, Voyageur Press 1 Comment

Geek Ink – Inkstinct

My first tattoo was a prize from a cereal box. I’ve been fascinated by tattoos ever since. The main reason I don’t actually have one is because I change my mind so frequently about the designs that I love. I do have a pretty extensive collection of temporary tattoos though, so I get to change my mind and designs every week.

I love the idea of this book. The first part features the work of twenty-five tattoo artists from around the world. The second part showcases tattoos grouped by theme. They’re advertised as geeky tattoos so this should have been the tattoo book of my dreams.

There were some amazing designs and some extraordinarily talented artists in this book but a good portion of them weren’t anything close to what I’d call geeky. There were plenty of Star Wars and Harry Potter tattoos and others from well known movies and TV series, along with some maths and science designs. I really liked the gorgeous flowers and realistic animals but they didn’t seem to belong in this book.

A short bio of each featured artist is accompanied by their Instagram name and links to their portfolio and website (where available), along with a selection of their work. Although I liked at least one example from each artist, the artist whose work I enjoyed the most was David Cote from Canada.

My favourite designs in the second part of the book were:

My favourite design that I don’t consider geeky was:

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Race Point Publishing, an imprint of Quarto Publishing Group, for the opportunity to read this book.

Once Upon a Blurb

Exhibiting cutting-edge designs from the most sought-after and acclaimed contemporary tattoo artists worldwide, Geek Ink presents magnificent ideas for tattoos on themes from science fiction and fantasy, as well as a wide range of topics across science, mathematics, literature, and philosophy.

With commentary from creators of the Inkstinct project – which connects people with the finest tattoo art from 380,000 studios worldwide and has an Instagram fan base of more than 1 million – as well as interviews with world-renowned masters like Eva Krbdk, David Cote and Thomas Eckeard, this is the definitive tattoo inspiration sourcebook for hipsters, bookworms, scientists, academics, engineers, and, of course, geeks!

24 August, 2020 by Schizanthus Nerd Categories: ReviewTags: 3.5 stars, NetGalley, Photography, Quarto Publishing Group, Race Point Publishing, Tattoos 1 Comment

After the Final Curtain: America’s Abandoned Theaters – Matt Lambros

I’ve loved abandoned places photography since I first learned of its existence. Although I’ve enjoyed poring over photographs of many abandoned places, including castles, hospitals and amusement parks, this is the first book I’ve read that focuses exclusively on theatres.

Featuring the history and photographs of twenty abandoned theatres, Matt Lambros took me on a journey through America. The theatres included in this book are located in California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

My favourite photograph is from the interior of Loew’s Majestic Theatre in Bridgeport, Connecticut. There’s a haunting quality to this image, with its blend of light and shadow, and it makes me want to ascend those stairs to find out what’s beyond them.

One thing I absolutely adored in this particular book is a feature I haven’t come across in other abandoned places photography books I’ve loved – images that highlight what a building looked like in its prime contrasted with ones that show its decay over time. Somehow being able to view the before and after side by side is both fascinating and even sadder than seeing the after in isolation.

The passage of time has caused RKO Proctor’s Theatre in Newark, New Jersey to be almost unrecognisable when compared to its heyday.

Then there’s Detroit, Michigan’s United Artists Theatre, whose Spanish Gothic interior had a creepiness to it even before time stripped away some of its shine. This is the theatre I most want to see in person.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Jonglez Publishing and Xpresso Book Tours for the opportunity to read this book.

Once Upon a Blurb

In the early 20th century the streets of small towns and cities across America were filled with the lights and sounds of movie theaters. The most opulent – known as “movie palaces” – were designed to make their patrons feel like royalty; people would dress up to visit. But as time went on it became harder and harder to fill the 2,000+ seat theaters and many were forced to close.

Today, these palaces are illuminated only by the flicker of dying lights. The sound of water dripping from holes in the ceiling echoes through the auditoriums. In After the Final Curtain (Volume 2) internationally-renowned photographer Matt Lambros continues his travels across the United States, documenting these once elegant buildings.

From the supposedly haunted Pacific Warner Theatre in Los Angeles to the Orpheum Theatre in New Bedford, MA, which opened the same day the Titanic sank, Lambros pulls back the curtain to reveal what is left, giving these palaces a chance to shine again.

5 November, 201930 April, 2020 by Schizanthus Nerd Categories: ReviewTags: 4 stars, Abandoned Places, Jonglez Publishing, NetGalley, Photography, Xpresso Book Tours Leave a comment

Abandoned Palaces – Michael Kerrigan

I love abandoned places photography! I adore the atmosphere, the haunting quality of the images and imagining the history of the buildings and those who have lived in or visited them.

Most of the collections of abandoned places I’ve seen have focused on the buildings’ interiors. This book includes some interior photos as well as some bird’s-eye view shots that show an interesting blend of interior and exterior. However, a greater proportion show the overall exterior of the building, with sections of facades crumbling on some and nature overrunning others, and I really enjoyed those photos. I particularly liked those that highlight the contrast between neglected architecture and flourishing greenery surrounding it (and oftentimes growing over it).

The descriptions that accompany each image are succinct; you learn enough to provide context but not so much that the information overwhelms the picture. Each section includes a short introduction to the overall location: The Americas and Caribbean, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and Asia and the Pacific.

Each time I look through this book (three times so far) different photos catch my eye and details I’ve previously missed stand out. I do have a few favourites that I expect will remain, no matter how many times I return. The one that stands out the most and that I most desperately need to visit is Pidhirsti Palace in Lviv, Ukraine.

The original photo by LALS STOCK can be found on Shutterstock here. Editing of the image in this book (or it may be because I’m reading an ARC) has given it a creepier feel than the original, but that has added to my love for this particular photo.

Although the colour feels off (again, this could be due to my viewing an ARC on an iPad) my favourite photo that showed some interior was of Ladendorf Castle in Mistelbach, Austria.

I loved that this open door felt like an invitation and, although it’s actually a courtyard you’re getting a glimpse of, I immediately imagined that a path out of view behind this building would lead intrepid explorers to another world. (That is one of the reasons why I love photography so much; it awakens my imagination.) This photo of Ladendorf Castle is by Viennaslide and can be found on Alamy here.

I was quite disappointed to learn that the photos were all sourced from stock image sites: 123RF, Alamy, Dreamstime, FLPA, Getty Images, Globallookpress.com, iStock and Shutterstock. In the past I’ve enjoyed collections of abandoned places photos by a single artist; I find this provides more of a cohesive feel to the project and gives me a sense of their ‘eye’ by the end of the book. I also enjoy the anecdotes a photographer can provide based on their experiences shooting at specific locations.

These details are missing here; this isn’t necessarily a bad thing but is certainly something I would have liked to have known before I started reading/looking. Also missing are the interior photos that show details of abandoned items that I love to pore over; they provide a small but important connection for me to the history of the buildings and the people who spent time there.

To be taken with a grain of salt as this relates to the ARC: There were some photos that appeared underexposed and others that appeared to have been edited so the colour was unnaturally saturated in places. These may be artistic choices by the individual photographers or the book’s editor or could be due to the fact that I viewed an advanced copy on an iPad. These comments may be entirely irrelevant once this book has been published.

Thank you to NetGalley and Amber Books for the opportunity to view this book.

Once Upon a Blurb

From imperial residences and aristocratic estates to hotels and urban mansions, Abandoned Palaces tells the stories behind dilapidated structures all around the world.

Built to impress, built with style and grandeur, built, above all, to last: it’s all the more remarkable when buildings such as these fall into disrepair and become ruins. From ancient Roman villas to the French colonial hill station in Cambodia that was one of the final refuges of the Khmer Rouge, Abandoned Palaces charts the decline of what were once the homes and holiday resorts of the super wealthy.

Ranging from crumbling hotels in the Catskills or in Mozambique, to grand mansions in Taiwan, to an unfinished Elizabethan summerhouse, to a modern megalomaniac’s partially completed estate, they were deserted for reasons including politics, bankruptcy, personal tragedies, natural and man-made disasters, and changing tastes and fashions. Filled with stunning, nostalgic images, this volume is a brilliant and moving examination of worlds left behind.

16 June, 201920 April, 2020 by Schizanthus Nerd Categories: ReviewTags: 3.5 stars, Abandoned Places, Amber Books, NetGalley, Photography Leave a comment

American Carnival – David Skernick

The nostalgia I experienced paging through this book was so much fun! Each year growing up I’d look forward to the Show (regional Australia carnival) coming to town. It would be in town for three days each year and it was a big deal; we even got a day off school on the Friday because it was a regional public holiday when I was growing up.

I’d feel like the most important person in the world when the ferris wheel stopped at the top, allowing me a bird’s eye view of the other rides. The local newspaper would list all of the different show bags that would be available, including all of the treasures you’d find inside them, and I’d carefully make my wish list and then agonise about which ones I absolutely had to have when I was told how many I could actually have.

I loved thinking I was a driver as I roared around the dodgem car circuit and still have photographic evidence of the one time my ride turned sour when an older kid rammed into my car and I somehow managed to hurt my hand in the process. I eagerly anticipated the fairy floss melting on my tongue and changing its colour, and was fascinated watching the vendor make it before my very eyes.

I desperately wanted to win specific toys in the games I played, the toys themselves losing some of their shine when I got them home, the sense of accomplishment remaining. I envied the bigger kids who were tall enough to go on the scary rides and waited for my height to catch up to my excitement.

It was loud. It was dusty. There were bright lights everywhere. There was so much to see, smell and do. It was magical!

In American Carnival, photographer David Skernick has collated a series of colour and black and white photos (predominantly panoramas) that bring to life the carnival experience, from the rides and attractions to the people who work there. Each photo is accompanied by a brief description. I would have been more engaged had the portraits included more information about the people they picture, for example, a quote regaling a humorous, touching or otherwise interesting experience they’ve had working at a carnival.

The photos follow a short foreword by Heidi Gray and an introduction by the photographer. Spanning from day to night and including some vibrant sunsets and atmospheric storm clouds, I don’t know if you could see these photos without reminiscing about your own carnival experiences. While the day photos provide details you don’t see at night, it’s the night photography that truly brings the carnival to life, with the bright lights and blur of rides in motion.

Thank you to NetGalley and Schiffer Publishing Ltd. for the opportunity to read this book. You can find out more about this book here.

Photos (c) Dave Skernick, American Carnival, published by Schiffer Publishing 2019; used with permission.

Once Upon a Blurb

Come celebrate the community, connection, and quirkiness of the American carnival. Stunning photographs by David Skernick capture the magic of the rides and games and the carnies and clowns who make the carnival their home. Meet Kat the sword swallower, Ember the fire eater, and the Human Fuse, Brian Miser, who sails through the air on fire! As day fades to dusk and the lights come up, smell the cotton candy, feel the vertigo of the Silver Yo Yo, and hear the laughter and screams. The panoramic images allow you to see the fair as if you were standing there yourself.

22 May, 201920 April, 2020 by Schizanthus Nerd Categories: ReviewTags: 4 stars, NetGalley, Photography, Schiffer Publishing Leave a comment