Libraries

by Candida Höfer

Other authorsUmberto Eco (Introduction)

Hardcover, 2014

Status

Available

Call number

770

Genres

Nonfiction

All Topics

Publication

Schirmer/Mosel (2014), Edition: First Edition Thus, 272 pages

Description

This striking book shows the world's most beautiful libraries through Candida Höfer's mesmerizing photographs. No one photographs spaces quite like Candida Höfer and no one has captured better the majesty, stillness, and eloquence of libraries. Traveling around the world, Höfer shows the exquisite beauty to be found in order, repetition, and form--rows of books, lines of desks, soaring shelves, and even stacks of paper create patterns that are both hypnotic and soothing. Photographed with a large-format camera and a small aperture, these razor-sharp images of the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York, the Escorial in Spain, Villa Medici in Rome, the Hamburg University library, the Bibliotheque Nationale de France in Paris, and the Museo Archeologico in Madrid, to name a few, communicate more than just the superb architecture. Glowing with subtle color and natural light, Höfer's photographs, while devoid of people, shimmer with life and remind us again and again that libraries are more than just repositories for books. Umberto Eco's essay about his own attachment to libraries is the perfect introduction to an otherwise wordless, but sublimely reverent journey.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Autodafe

Beautiful. One wants to step into Hofer's photographs.

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LibraryThing member wifilibrarian

A coffee table book of gorgeous colour photos of European libraries. There are also some modern photos of server rooms or desks are less appealing but in their own way compelling, charting the evolution of the library and how materials are now stored electronically. Most of the photos showcase

empty buildings and I preferred the photos that included people. People give scale to some of the rooms that otherwise were hard to imagine, and, as the only point of libraries is for them to be used, the people-less library seems especially forlorn. The photos do fuel fantasies of working in one of these places.

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LibraryThing member DanielleMD

I didn't know library porn was a thing until I opened this book. Whoa. Absolutely stunning. My mouth was hanging open from beginning to end.

LibraryThing member petervanbeveren

Libraries are a book producer's dream. Since nobody photographs libraries as beautifully as Hofer, it seemed only natural to dedicate one of her publications to the splendid and intimate cathedrals of knowledge across Europe and the US: the Escorial in Spain, the Whitney Museum in New york, Villa

Medici in Rome, the Hamburg University library, the Bibliotheque nationale de France in Paris, the Museo Archeologico in Madrid, and Pierpont Morgan Library in New York, to name just a few. Almost completely devoid of people, as is Candida Hofer's trademark, these pictures radiate a comforting serenity that is exceptional in contemporary photography.

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