Hard Rain: Our Headlong Collision with Nature

by Mark Ryall Edwards, Lloyd Timberlake, Bob Dylan (Lyrics)

In July 1969, Mark Edwards, lost on the edge of the Sahara, is rescued by a Tuareg nomad, who takes him to his people, makes a fire and produces a cassette player. Bob Dylan sings "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall". As Dylan piles image upon image, the idea comes to Edwards of illustrating each line of the song. In the years that follow, he travels to over 150 countries to photograph our headlong collision with nature. "Hard Rain" is the result - an unforgettable collection of photographs illustrating Dylan's prophetic lyric. Images from Edwards' personal archive, plus contributions by Sebastiao Salgado, Chris Steele-Perkins and others, combine with the words of rock music's great, poetic writer to form the centrepiece of "Hard Rain". Award-winning author Lloyd Timberlake's brilliantly argued reproach of our lack of action in the face of global collapse, will inspire readers to participate in the complex debate about how we should best address the pressing issues of climate change, environmental degradation and world poverty.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction, Photography, Music

128 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2006

About the author

Photographer

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

You click on this first:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5al0...

Here's the book, a collection of photographs, accompanying the lyrics to Dylan's "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall," with some essays, for free:

http://www.hardrainproject.com/pagefl...

Dylan's A Hard Rain lyrics:

https://www.google.com/search?client=...

Dylan actually wrote this song about the fear of war (the "rain" of bullets and bombs) and nuclear holocaust, during the 1962 Cuban Missle Crisis. He said he wrote it fast, in absolute terror. But the song works for any global crisis, as we surely are in right now, where global "leaders" callously continue to ignore catastrophe.

The photographs are often powerful, sometimes disturbing, often beautiful. My only quibble here is that he tends to take the lyrics too literally; for example, if the line is about a boy next to a dead pony, that's the picture. The essays are powerful, a scream to pay attention and act. About ANYTHING: School murders, poisoning the waters, and so on.

[kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book was given to me out of the blue by jackson's uncle paul, because of our shared "environmental enthusiasms" (he is currently working to determine scotlands CO2 budget). while the premise of the book is somewhat contrived, a "photo essay" with photographs accompanying the lyrice to bob dylan's "a hard rain's a-gonna fall"... the result is a compilation of some very moving pictures. since i had jackson, any depiction of children suffering makes me really sad, and those are the images i've continued to think about. worth a look.