Butterflies in Flight

With more than 300 photographs of real butterflies, depicted in all their lightness and brilliance, and presented in a unique accordion-fold format, Butterflies in Flight is a strikingly attractive gift book that will appeal to anyone who appreciates art and nature. Hundreds of butterflies soar and drift across the page. Each panel of this traditional Japanese format stands on its own visually, yet is also designed to lead to the next panel so that the flight itself appears to glide, panel after panel, before the viewer.

The accordion format, which unfolds to more than 23 feet, allows the book to be set upright and displayed as a delightful art object. Roger Camp has brilliantly used modern techniques of photography and digital imaging to create an irresistible flight of real butterflies. He was first inspired by Kanzaka Sekka's 1904 woodblock-printed book, One Thousand Kinds of Butterflies, to find a contemporary way of marrying beauty with technology, thus creating a magical presentation of these infinitely graceful creatures.

Here is an exquisitely beautiful homage to the colorful celebrity of the insect world, the butterfly. With more than 300 photographs of real butterflies presented in a unique accordion-fold format, Butterflies in Flight is a strikingly attractive gift book that will appeal to anyone who appreciates art and nature.

Hundreds of butterflies soar and drift across the page. Each panel of this traditional Japanese format stands on its own visually, yet is also designed to lead to the next panel so that the flight itself appears to glide, panel after panel, before the viewer. The accordion format, which unfolds to more than seventy feet, allows the book to be set upright and displayed as a delightful art object.

Roger Camp has used modern techniques of photography and digital imaging brilliantly to create an irresistible flight of real butterflies. He was inspired by Kanzaka Sekka's 1904 woodblock-printed book, One Thousand Kinds of Butterflies, to find a contemporary way of marrying beauty with technology, thus creating a magical presentation of these infinitely graceful creatures.

Over 300 images of more than 250 species of butterflies. A separate "Guide to the Butterflies" identifies by name and habitat every butterfly depicted. Slipcase and real cloth binding. Over 300 color illustrations; 104 pages, accordion format.

Author Biography: Roger Camp is Professor of Photography at Golden West College, California. His work has been widely exhibited.

Publishers Weekly

This striking evergreen volume, when removed from its equally evergreen slipcase, opens to reveal shiny, black accordion-fold pages-more than 70 feet of them-over which nearly 300 species of butterflies flit and flutter in full digitally-enhanced color and detail. To achieve such startling verisimilitude, Camp captured butterflies around the world and--believe it or not--placed them on a scanner, pulled up their likenesses on screen and essentially photoshopped them into shape. (What would Nabokov, that old moth-chaser, think?) Too limited in informative text for the avid lepidopterist or even the amateur with a winged creature in his net (there is no discussion of specimens or habitat, or indeed, of anything at all), this is, instead, an art book of nature: "marrying beauty with science," Camp writes, was his sole intention. And the butterflies do shine brilliantly: their colors-the acid green of Ornithoptera p. priamus, the scarlet and blue color blocks of Agrias claudina--are so vivid as to be nearly shocking. Camp's book may not serve a clear purpose, but it's undeniably lovely to look at. (Oct.) Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.

Roger Camp is Professor of Photography at Golden West College, California. His work has been widely exhibited.