Ashes and Snow, Book 2

by Gregory Colbert

Gregory Colbert has spent thirteen years patiently filming and photographing elephants, whales, birds, and other animals in such places as India, Burma, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Namibia, Egypt, the island of Dominica, Tonga, and Atarctica. ashes and Snow, Colbert's lifelong project, explores the nature of animals in their natrual habitat as they interact with human beings. his images attempt to lift the natural and artificial barriers between humans and other species-to re-awaken in us an understanding of our shared animal nature. Ashes and Snow Book No. 2 collects images of whales from the exhibition in Venice, Italy (2002) and New York City (2005). The books were printed and bound in Italy; the covers are created out of handmade paper from Nepal which is sealed with natural beeswax; interior pages are printed on handmade Italian paper; each book is hand sewn and tied with thread stained with hibiscus tea leaves.

Genres: Photography

Paperback

First published March 1, 2005

About the author

Gregory Colbert is a Canadian film-maker and photographer best known as the creator of Ashes and Snow, an exhibition of photographic artworks and films housed in the Nomadic Museum.

Reviews

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

From this book, I learned that elephants look really cool underwater, covered with dirt, or underwater just after being covered with dirt, with the dirt billowing out around them like clouds of obsolescent fairy-dust while their wrinkled skins inflate and deflate in accordance with the tides. Also, indigenous people look good when they ride on elephants, especially if they are just skinny enough to be models and almost skinny enough that you think about how starvation is exotic and attractive when elephants are involved. I first saw these photos while Enya was playing over loudpeakers in a warehouse on a pier, so I know that Enya + elephants + dirt + water + indigenous girls so skinny that their clothes hang off them and show a little sideboob = photorgasm. Thanks, 'Ashes and Snow'. You are so beautiful you make me dumber and I cannot hate you, and I find this fact painfully conflicting -- much how I feel about Chip Kidd bookcovers, Sunday afternoons in Central Park during late May, anything involving Julie Taymor and wicker, and also Moby.