Libraries
By: Candida Höfer ; introduction by Umberto Eco
Contributors: Eco, Umberto
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Published: 2005
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 271
Subjects: Höfer, Candida, -- 1944-; Library buildings -- Pictorial works; Architectural photography; Photography of interiors
Genres: Pictorial works
Description: "Nobody photographs libraries, those splendid and intimate cathedrals of knowledge, as beautifully as Candida Hofer. Her photographs are sober and restrained in feel - the atmosphere is disturbed by neither visitors nor users, especially as she forgoes any staging of the locations. The emptiness is imbued with substance by a subtle attention to colour, and the prevailing silence instilled with a metaphysical quality that gives voice to the objects, over and above the eloquence of the furnishings or the pathos of the architecture." "This volume contains Hofer's famously ascetic images of the British Library in London, the Escorial in Spain, the Whitney Museum and the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York, the Bibliotheque nationale de France in Paris, the Villa Medici in Rome and the Hamburg University Library, among others. Umberto Eco introduces the collection with a witty reflection on the role of libraries in all our lives." "Almost completely devoid of people, as is Hofer's trademark, these pictures radiate a serenity that is exceptional in contemporary photography."--Jacket.
Notes: "Text by Umberto Eco translated from the Italian, De Bibliotheca, by Alastair McEwen. First published in: Eco, Umberto. Sette anni di desiderio. Milan : Gruppo Editoriale Fabbri-Bompari, Sonzogno, Etas S.p.A., 1983." -- colophon

Includes bibliographical references and index