"URBAN FOREST – IMAGES OF TREES IN THE HUMAN LANDSCAPE" par David Paul BAYLES. Editions Sierra Club Books, San Francisco. 2003. Petit in-4, format oblong, couverture toilée noire sous jaquette photo. 144 pages. Texte en anglais, illustré de nombreuses reproductions photographiques, 51 en noir & blanc et 30 en couleurs, pleine page pour la plupart, par David Paul Bayles.

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"Beyond their aesthetic and utilitarian importance, urban trees seem to fill a deeper human need. Perhaps they are reminders of the inexorable cycles of the natural word. Perhaps they serve as eddies and rills of slowness and sureness within the frantic rush of our urban environment. For more than two decades, photographer David Paul Bayles has been making images of trees in cities and suburbs – places of tension, as he put is, between "what we build and what we grow." This beautiful designed and produced volume showcases his extraordinary vision of urban trees and their often precarious, sometimes triumphant place in the human landscape. Initially drawn to his project by "the balance and the harmony and beauty between the manmade structure and the tree," Bayles has also found and photographed plenty of imbalance and human folly along the way. The images in this collection are laconic, almost deadpan, yet at the same time infused with irony, humor, and compassion. They avoid the easy trap of politicization, allowing and encouraging each of us to see the relationship between humankind and trees – in all of its complexity – for ourselves…"

 

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