Tuscany: Inside the Light

There have been a surprising number of negative opinions about this view of Tuscany, comments that may make the potential buyer avoid the book. This reader found something different here, something unique to this volume and view of an area of the world that seems to have become everybody's dream location. First, the book is soft hued. Joel Meyerowitz is an accomplished photographer who is able to photograph just about any subject and make it more sensitive. Here he walks us through Tuscany along with writer Maggie Barrett during the various seasons of the year. No, there are no color-saturated view of sunflower fields, vineyards, or the glowing sunlight that permeates the summers of Tuscany. Instead we begin with Winter and proceed through Spring, Summer, and Autumn and are given the quality of light that changes with the seasons as much as the crops and produce and landscapes do. The result is a romantic, poetic, fine marriage of image and word that allows us to let the mystery of the countryside and its inhabitants and treasures subtlely come to life. This is not a book for those eager to find the best travel locales or for those who want some visual information for making paintings. This instead is a book of dreamy visions, images altered by light as seen through different hours and seasons. This is a poet's collection. Grady Harp, November 06

This is not a book about Tuscany as a series of pretty pictorial pictures, instead this is a book about looking and seeing a landscape transformed, shaped almost by a particular light, brilliantly sunny or gloomily misty. There is a pure humbling feel to this body of work, whose subject Joel Meyerowitz has not re created in any grand graphic sense but simply drawn our attention to. Joel has created such a sense of place that one feels transported to the 'real' Tuscany, but we in turn are asked to look and consider our own surroundings and lives. What is and what could be. A brilliant book.

this book transported me back to one of the most beautiful and enchanting places in the world- tuscany. the photography is wonderful; there are many photographs that are just incredible. Meyerowitz's use of light is amazing, and the accompanying text gives a welcome perspective on what the reader is seeing. this is a great xmas present .

I was captured by the cover and when I looked inside this book, I loved the color photography. It made me feel like I'd been to Tuscany! I gave it as a housewarming gift to a friend. I think it would make a terrific Christmas gift too, a perfect coffee table book.