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Product Description
Product Description
In 1976 and 1978, aerial photographer Georg Gerster had the rare opportunity to record the landscape of Iran on over 100 flights and 300 flying hours. This unique photographic project resulted in a near complete documentation of the major archaeological sites and important landscapes in the region. The book includes spectacular images of ancient citadels, desert ruins and rice fields spreading like a vast patchwork in a river delta, along with many unexpected sights, such as the bird's eye view of a crowded ski resort in the Elburz mountains, within easy reach of Tehran. Persia's densely packed cities like Bushehr on the Persian Gulf, are elegantly captured by Gerster and look so very different from Western European or North American cities of the same period.Persia's complex, interlocking flat-roofed buildings are both timeless and timely, with architecture that has stood unchaged for thousands of years, along with brightly-coloured 1970s cars parked in the colonnaded courtyards. Even the Persian landscape contains surprises: on closer inspection, the elaborate patterns made in fields with tractors and ploughs turn out to have more to do with politics than agriculture or land art - a law at the time allowed people to claim unused land by planting crops on it, and this type of 'agridoodle' was apparently enough to support such a claim.Persia is the anchient name of the region we now know as Iran. We still reference the country's long and rich cultural heritage when we speak of Persian carpets and Persian miniatures, of Persian language, history and literature. In her introduction to this book, Iranian-born writer Maryam Sachs lists some words borrowed from Persian by English speakers, which include azure, bazaar, gazelle, magic, musk, tapestry, scarlet, narcissus and paradise. These words offer insight into the country's landscape, inhabitants and traditions - influences that have indirectly shaped its landscape. This book vividly brings to life a place, time and culture that few people outside Iran are able to witness.
About the Author
Maryam Sachs (b. 1962) was born in Iran, and educated at the Sorbonne in Paris. She has a Masters in Economic Development from Columbia University, New York, and her books include the anthologies The Kiss and The Moon, The Wild Emperor (with her husband, designer Rolf Sachs) and Sans te dire adieu, a novel. She lives in London.Georg Gerster (b. 1928) is a pioneer in aerial photography. For over 40 years he has taken breath-taking pictures of mountains and deserts, coasts and lakes, agrarian and industrial landscapes all over the world. He took his first aerial photographs in the Sudan in 1963, and since then, he has taken photographs in 111 countries on all continents, covering all types of territory from the Amazon to Antarctica. He has photographed some of the world's most spectacular archaeological sites and ancient monuments, from the temple at Karnak, Egypt and the Acropolis in Athens, to the Great Wall of China. From 1975 to 1995, Gerster shot a series of now highly collectible advertising posters for Swissair. Gerster sees his work as a philosophical instrument: "distance creates an overview, and an overview creates insight." Based near Zurich, Switzerland, he also works a journalist, and is a regular contributor to the Neue Zurcher Zeitung and National Geographic.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
First excited about the wonderful images, I was then shocked and appalled by reading the contents.
The amazing landscape, cities, ruins and historical monuments of Iran have been captured and recorded with such an excellent collection of aerial photographs which equal Erich Schmidt's pioneer aerial reconnaissance of Iran, published in 1940 (Flights Over Ancient Cities of Iran). The beauty of these images has been unfortunately somehow wasted by first the photographer's very personal, and - to some degree - offending account of his work in Iran, and second by the awkward organization of the book's content and text. It is really embarrassing to see a book exclusively on Iran with a table of contents which enlists the name of the Persian Gulf simply as "the Gulf" (the readers should wonder which Gulf?). The comble is when you see that the author of the text is an Iranian woman married to a Swiss. That is even worse when you find out that the book is dedicated to Farah Diba, the former queen of Iran!!! Ignorance or hypocrisy? Or both. Even the title is silly: Paradise Lost! It is really graceless. I bought the book just for the sake of its wonderful images of Iran. Ignore the dull text, and let the images speak for themselves.
The amazing landscape, cities, ruins and historical monuments of Iran have been captured and recorded with such an excellent collection of aerial photographs which equal Erich Schmidt's pioneer aerial reconnaissance of Iran, published in 1940 (Flights Over Ancient Cities of Iran). The beauty of these images has been unfortunately somehow wasted by first the photographer's very personal, and - to some degree - offending account of his work in Iran, and second by the awkward organization of the book's content and text. It is really embarrassing to see a book exclusively on Iran with a table of contents which enlists the name of the Persian Gulf simply as "the Gulf" (the readers should wonder which Gulf?). The comble is when you see that the author of the text is an Iranian woman married to a Swiss. That is even worse when you find out that the book is dedicated to Farah Diba, the former queen of Iran!!! Ignorance or hypocrisy? Or both. Even the title is silly: Paradise Lost! It is really graceless. I bought the book just for the sake of its wonderful images of Iran. Ignore the dull text, and let the images speak for themselves.
Format:Hardcover
I bought this book for my father and thus haven't opened it yet, but am very pleased with my purchase. This book is very unique as some of the landmarks in the photographs simply don't exist anymore in their true shape and form due to the the natural disasters happened in Iran in recent years. This book is a must have and I believe there won't be a book as complete as this in the future.
Format:Hardcover
Dr Gerster has produced a very unique collection of images from Iran - Persia- never seen before. It is already a historical book since some monuments have changed or dont't exist any longer like citadel of Bam which was destroyed by a massive earthquake. Dr Gerster's special eye for the selection of the sites makes it very interesting. Just have a look at Pasargad and the mausoleum of Cyrus the Great - incredible!
This is a book that all Persia lovers should have.
(You have to close an eye to the repeated term of "Gulf" - without
"Persian" which apparently was recommended by the Brithish publisher).
This is a book that all Persia lovers should have.
(You have to close an eye to the repeated term of "Gulf" - without
"Persian" which apparently was recommended by the Brithish publisher).
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