Fish Face

by David Doubilet (Photographer)

The magical world of the oceans is one of the last great largely unexplored places on earth. Teeming with diverse forms of life - some of its wonders more familiar to us than others and all peculiar in their own way - Fish Face takes us closer than one would imagine possible. Featuring full-page, close-up portraits of the faces of fish, this book takes us from the beautiful to the ugly, and from the spiky to the rotund, in a majestic exploration of the vast variety of underwater species - all without fail both amusing and astounding. This book celebrates the work of David Doubilet, widely acclaimed as the world's leading underwater photographer, who has been photographing fish for over 25 Fish Face shows us the most colourful, humorous and bizarre fish he has ever encountered. Of particular interest to naturalists and photographers alike, this extraordinary collection of photographs will further appeal to anyone who has ever reflected on the otherworldly fish that inhabit the mysterious world of the oceans, as well as any individual with an eye for an out-of-the-ordinary aesthetic.

Genres: Photography, Nature, Animals, Art

408 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Sharon Barrow Wilfong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous color photo of fish artfully done.

[Matty Speechley · Rating 5 out of 5]

really good photos of fish

[Octavia Cade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who says fish aren't photogenic?! In all fairness, a lot of these aren't. There are some extremely ugly fish in the world, is all I have to say - and yes, stargazer, I'm talking to you. On the other hand, the photography here is amazing. Doubilet has taken, over the years, a vast number of fishy close-ups, and they're collected here absolutely untainted by any explanatory detail. Each portrait has a species name and the place and date where the photograph was taken, but that's all. (Why this information was always presented in the perpendicular is unknown, but it's a deeply annoying effect and the one bad thing about this book.) Usually I'm all for science communication taking every opportunity it can to teach people about the natural world, but I'm fine with it being absent here: the impact of the fishy faces is enough.

A lot of them are funny. (A lot of them are eels. Seriously: many, many eels, and all of them look hungry.) The cutest may well be urchin puffer fish of South Africa, which has the long-suffering but amiable expression of a dog denied a piece of cheese. The saw shark from Tasmania, photographed from below, takes the prize for creature most likely to be the bad special effect in a horror film (not a criticism, I love horror films and their terrible effects). My absolute favourite, however, was the shot of three white-eyed moray eels from Western Australia, who all looked so horrified to be captured on film that I laughed every time I looked at them.

[Lorraine Haataia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book full of photos of fish faces. The photography is outstanding and most of the photos include notes about where in the world they were taken. The words are written sideways and that's a bit annoying, but my biggest complaint with the book is that it's falling apart at the binding. It seems like some of the glue is coming off. This is a great resource to flip through when I need design inspiration from nature. This isn't a picture book that I went through through once; it's one that I put on my shelf for ongoing reference. I plan to add more picture books like this to my collection.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so cool.

[Joanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is just a fun book full of great underwater photos of exotic fish.

[Squiddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The format of the book ruins the two page spreads; the pages are stiff and curl too broadly.