Animals

Children's Literature - Beverly Kobrin

Jacques Lowe pairs photographs to illustrate different treatments of similar subjects in his first-rate "Looking at Photographs" series. In Animals, for example, a telephoto close-up of a "Sea Lion" faces a studio portrait of a "Peregrine Falcon;" and in People, a multiple-exposed ballerina tiptoes through a "Pas de Boure‚" opposite "Daley Thompson, Decathlon Hurdler," mid-hurdle." Photographic details of the black-and-white and color photos are woven throughout Coleman's commentary on the history of photography.

Children's Literature - Victoria Crenson

This book offers a sampling of stunning photo work. The ingenious selection is meant to intrigue and also to introduce the reader to concepts such as frame, available light, and the decisive moment. In each photograph, Coleman challenges the reader to think not only about the image, but also about the intent of the photographer. Painters choose what they wish to paint. "But photographers, who begin by pointing their cameras at something in the real world, have to decide what to leave out."

School Library Journal

Gr 5-8-Eighteen photographs of animals, some in color, most in black and white, are analyzed in this appealing book about how a camera can make humans see the various creatures of the world in new ways. The pictures, all by well-known photographers, are arranged in chronological order, from a sample of Eadweard Muybridge's studies of motion, dated 1885, to a 1992 portrait of penguins and their chicks by Art Wolfe. The emphasis is on understanding the choices the artists made, from backlighting to flash, from bird's-eye view to eye level, from aerial shots to microphotography. Each full-page photo that Coleman focuses on is balanced by a small shot that reinforces, by contrast or comparison, the point he is making. This volume is a pleasure to look at and the lessons in visual literacy are easy to absorb and remember. Young readers will surely be inspired to take camera in hand and practice the craft of photography choosing subject, composition, and point of view as demonstrated here.-Shirley Wilton, Ocean County College, Toms River, NJ

Hazel Rochman

With photographic examples from Stieglitz to Wegman, this volume from the new Looking at Photographs series provides an excellent overview of how photographs are made, what they reveal, and how to look at them. Facing each full-page photo is a page of text about the technique and art that went into the photo's planning and design. The examples, some in black-and-white, some in color, vary from an aerial view of an elephant herd to a close-up magnification of a live flea; the subjects include a seahorse underwater and a cat chasing a dragonfly. A long, detailed glossary picks up the technical terms, but the discussion is clear and easy, explaining the importance of light, framing, viewpoint, scale, color, and relationship. This is an art book that opens up possibilities, showing how the best pictures reveal the unexpected and leave us to imagine beyond the frame.