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Through The Eyes Of The Condor: An Aerial Vision of Latin America | 
 enlarge | Author: Robert B. Haas
Creator: Marie Arana
Publisher: National Geographic
Category: Book
List Price: $50.00
Buy New: $7.52
You Save: $42.48 (85%)
New (33) Used (12) from $7.43
Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 140301
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 232
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 5.6
Dimensions (in): 15 x 11 x 1
ISBN: 142620132X
Dewey Decimal Number: 779.36098
EAN: 9781426201325
ASIN: 142620132X
Publication Date: September 18, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Step aboard a private plane for a breathtaking tour of the immense and varied wilderness of Latin America—lush lands and scenic waterways nearly impossible to experience any other way. Your guide to this remarkable vision is Robert B. Haas, award-winning environmentalist and one of the world's foremost artists in aerial photography.
To create this elegant portfolio, Haas covered 14 countries and an astonishing 80 percent of the land mass of Latin America. In magnificent color and exquisite composition, he captures the majesty of the Amazon, the fickleness of rare wildlife in Patagonia, and the incredible topography of untouched lands. Photographs are presented in large double-page panoramas, inviting the viewer to appreciate their abstract qualities and become absorbed in rich details. The aerial perspective gives a generous view of the land below: While large-scale environmental effects may be seen, man's blemishes are mostly diminished when viewed against the vastness of the land. A full-page map highlights countries and specific places photographed.
An introduction by Marie Arana—author of American Chica and Cellophane—prefaces the book. The photographs and commentary are organized thematically: landscapes, humans and their impact, wildlife, abstracts, ancient sites. Poignant essays penned by Haas while living in Latin America expand on themes important to understanding the region: culture, economy, development, tourism, and more.
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| Customer Reviews:
 So much to like, but ... February 10, 2008
Robert C. Ross (New Jersey)
Robert B. Haas is a corporate lawyer in Texas who came to photography fairly late in life. He claims to be afraid of heights, but has spent many hours hanging out of small planes and helicopters all over the world taking pictures of the topography. This volume contains 113 pictures "covering 14 countries and 80 percent of the Latin America land mass" according to the National Geographic.
On first reading, first viewing, rather, I found the images just stunning. I spent two hours lost in the images. As I walked home from the library, the images remained in my memory, but I had a vague feeling that something was missing. I did a bit of research, and found a couple of conflicting descriptions of these beautiful images.
National Geographic was accurate: "Photographs are presented in large double-page panoramas, inviting the viewer to appreciate their abstract qualities and become absorbed in rich details. The aerial perspective gives a generous view of the land below: While large-scale environmental effects may be seen, man's blemishes are mostly diminished when viewed against the vastness of the land. A full-page map highlights countries and specific places photographed."
That word "abstract" gnawed at me. Something was still elusive. The almost invariably reliable "Library Journal" held the answer.
"Somehow, the dazzling colors and intricate patterns don't add up to the absorbing and informative tour of the southern continent that we expect. Haas ... has developed a formula for identifying a pleasing pattern of water and earth or vegetation and focusing so tightly on it as to deny all context. ... The photos become optical puzzles or animal trophies rather than informative pictures of what passed beneath his aircraft. The procession of 113 photos with minimal text and weak captions is overwhelming, and the excellent photos are subsumed by the weaker ones and those in which digital manipulation has created bizarre coloration or pixelation."
I agree completely with the "Library Journal". Seen just as images, the book is a visual feast, but the pictures feed the senses and leave the intellect asking for more. There's nothing wrong with pretty pictures in a coffee table book, but I want something to think about. Let Marie Arana have the last word given my hot and cold reactions to this book:
From the Preface: "We leap to tell visitors that our countries hold a smorgasbord of landforms--coastline, desert, jungle, mountain, marshland, archipelago--all in defined geographic spaces, and often in dramatic contiguity. The white promontories of the Andes are not far from the impenetrable canopy of the Amazon, where every November the jungle floor is deluged by floodwaters, and jaguars are forced to swim with the pink dolphins. Not until I was flying 5,000 feet above the earth did I see how close and interdependent those landforms truly are. A few minutes in the air can take you from the vernal cliffs of Lima's seaside suburbs to the windblown desert of Chan Chan, the once grand citadel of the Chimu; or from the unforgiving rock over which the conquistadores labored to the green vales of Cajamarca. All of it, interconnected. One."
Robert C. Ross 2008
Book lover January 20, 2008
Ann Widmer
I love this book. I hated the price, sorry, very expensive but I love the pictures. Ann
Amazing images January 8, 2008
ebc (Plano, TX)
This was an amazing book! The photos have such beautiful color and perspective. As an added bonus, all proceeds from this book sales go to the National Geographic Sociiety!
Amazing, stunning collection. October 18, 2007
Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
General-interest public lending libraries will appreciate this oversized volume packed with photos sweeping Latin America's landscapes. It comes from a renowned aerial photographer who provides over a hundred images representing his years of travel to fourteen Latin American countries. His photos celebrate towns, people, cultures and geography alike, providing double-page, panoramic photo spreads unparalleled elsewhere. Any collection with any interest in Latin American geography and culture - or geographic photography - needs this amazing, stunning collection.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
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