Pictures worth more than words. - Wildlife: The World's Top Photographers and the Stories behind Their Greatest Images - book review

Wildlife: The World's Top Photographers and the Stories behind Their Greatest Images. through Terry Hope. 176 pages. RotoVision. $39 hardcover.

single of the best things about working upon a magazine such as Animals is choosing the pictures. There's a destiny to consider besides the quality of the photograph and in what manner well it works in a particular layout: Does it display the appropriate species? Was it taken in the wild or in captivity? Was the photo taken in a manner that bring the subject's well-being at risk or interfered with natural behaviors?

The fact is, we don't always know the filled story behind all of the centurys of picture agency images Animals staff review for each issue. many times we can only guess what the photographer went from one side to get the shot.

In RotoVision's Wildlife: The World's Top Photographers with body by Terry Hope, readers are treated to more [i]or[/i] less of me most stunning photographs at any time taken of animals and to glimpses of the behind-the-scenes stories of these achievements. Shutterbug will appreciate the technical particulars of that kind as the camera type, settings, and len used.

The work of many of the artists featured in the work will be familiar to Animals readers. Six photographs hint at the genius of Franz Lanting, although the uttermost close-up of a toucan's organ of vision seems out of context without the remarkable images that accompany it in Lanting's rainforest tour, thicket s Art Wolfe and his extraordinary ability to fetch "the emotion of the moment" is also well exhibited The omisssion of Galen Rowell--who died along with his wife last summer in a plane crash--from this top 40 list looks an unfortunate oversight, but still, Wildlife is a treasure trove of talent.

Its photographs make it a welcome addition to any coffee table, on the other hand the book has missed an opportunity to reveal the intricate, trying, and edgy tactics that photographers sometimes busy Bribing poachers for information, enduring hours in searing heat or chilled ignoring bugs crawling all above them, hauling heavy equipment above rough terrain for hours, the wildlife photographer's life isn't always easy or comely Yet Wildlife's canned bios and unevenly revealing caption information give readers sole a taste of what's wanted to do photographic justice to a make submissive as fascinating as wild animals: knowledge about their controls technical skill, artistic flair, physical endurance, bravery, patience, and luck

Paula Abend is editor of Animals

COPYRIGHT 2003 Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of brutality to Animals

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group