David Maisel: Black Maps

by David Maisel (Photographer), Julian Cox

Black Maps is the first in-depth survey of the major aerial projects by David Maisel, whose images of radically altered terrain have transformed the practice of contemporary landscape photography. In more than 100 photos that span Maisel's career, Black Maps presents a hallucinatory worldview encompassing both stark documentary and tragic metaphor, and exploring the relationship between nature and humanity today. Maisel's images of environmentally impacted sites consider the aesthetics of open pit mines, clear-cut forests, rampant urbanization and sprawl, and zones of water reclamation. These surreal and disquieting photos take us towards the margins of the unknown and as the Los Angeles Times has stated, "argue for an expanded definition of beauty, one that bypasses glamour to encompass the damaged, the transmuted, the decomposed."

Genres: Photography, Art

237 pages, Hardcover

First published October 15, 2012

Reviews

[Jonathan Cassie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maisel's photographs of environmentally devastated landscapes are transfixing. This book gathers a number of his monographs and is worth a deep study.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Black Maps is a masterpiece of modern landscape photography. Absolutely astonishing. Over 100 aerial photos that explore open pit mines, clear cut forests, and human sprawl. If Google Earth was 1000 times sharper and more interesting and somehow turned into a painting that was a cross between Diebenkorn and Rothko, that's what you'd get. This will most likely be my photo book of the year. Get this while it's $55.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book of aerial photos of mines, waste impoundments, and other areas savaged by humans deals more with the photography than the subjects. The photographic criticism is more florid than meaningful. I would have liked to know more about the land depicted in the photos. I much prefer The Day After Tomorrow by J Henry Fair.

[Chris Callahan · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazing contrast between the unnatural and the beautiful.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't love all of the accompanying texts (though Geoff Manugh is great as always), but the photos more than make up for those problems. Eerie, otherworldly, and troublingly beautiful.