Review by Booklist Review
Collaborating again, as they did on All under Heaven: The Chinese World [BKL D 15 83], Eliot Porter offers his always superb color photographs and son Jonathan the text for this rather slimmer volume about Iceland. A stubborn subject--rainy, gloomy, treeless--Iceland did not reveal its special charms to either Porter. When their Landrover wasn't stuck in the wet turf, it was broken down, and many promising sites failed to be picture opportunities. True, Eliot can always make a beautiful photograph, and Jonathan can write a graceful account, but this trip was less fruitful than others. Still, it is only because we have so many superb Porter collections already that this one seems of more marginal interest. Recommended, anyway, for all serious Porter or photography or art collections and, of course, for those with no Porter at all. --Gretchen Garner
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Those who envision Iceland as a bone-chilling snowscape will be taken aback by this view of a rocky yet lush, colorful terrain. Exercising his well-known eye for lyric detail in nature, Eliot Porter unveils dramatic contrasts in 56 color photographs: white flowers sprout from the protruding face of a black ash cliff; fiery-hued lichens crawl over gray rock. He also ferrets out complex textures in volcanic rock, homes dug out cunningly from under hills and water in many forms (fjords, glacial lakes, falls, rivers) . Few animals or humans suggest their presence in his uniformly picturesque landscapes, svelte and glistening yet robustly authentic. The photographer's son, chairman of the history department at the University of New Mexico, contributes an able but lackluster essay on a trip to the region. The book reprints a limited edition. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
