In "Violent Legacies" the acclaimed photographer Richard Misrach has compiled three new "cantos" in his ongoing series of photographs exploring the desert in the American West. The desert has long been a metaphor in Misrach's art. In "Violent Legacies" these barren lands, so often romanticized, undergo an eerie transformation at the hands of man and become an unmistakable reflection of militarism, violence, and environmental destruction. Misrach's political commitment and activism-- filtered through an ironic counterposing ...
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In "Violent Legacies" the acclaimed photographer Richard Misrach has compiled three new "cantos" in his ongoing series of photographs exploring the desert in the American West. The desert has long been a metaphor in Misrach's art. In "Violent Legacies" these barren lands, so often romanticized, undergo an eerie transformation at the hands of man and become an unmistakable reflection of militarism, violence, and environmental destruction. Misrach's political commitment and activism-- filtered through an ironic counterposing of form and content, as well as his exquisite use of color and composition-- have never been as powerfully articulated as in these three new cantos. In "Project W-47 (The Secret)" Misrach reveals classically inspired vistas of the Utah deadlands, tainted forever by their past incarnation as Wendover Air Base-- the secret training and planning site for the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. Aspects of what took place at Wendover still remain classified by the U.S. government. "The Pit" is a Goyaesque series that focuses on the mysterious death of livestock in very close proximity to a former nuclear test site in the Nevada desert. These photographs are a chilling reminder of U.S. and global nuclear contamination. "The Playboys" are Misrach's studies of "Playboy" magazines that were used for target practice by persons unknown on the fringes of the Nevada Nuclear Test Site. While cover girls appear to have been the principal targets, many aspects of American culture-- including icons like Andy Warhol, Ray Charles, and Madonna-- were inadvertently blasted. Susan Sontag uses these cantos as a springboard to an allegorical tale-- "The View from the Ark"--a subtle, yet probing meditation on violence in contemporary society. A postscript interview with Richard Misrach provides background information about the sites comprising "Violent Legacies." "The West," says Misrach, "is such a loaded concept that any representation deviating from the cowboy myth automatically becomes confrontational. Today, a more fitting myth is that of Dr. Frankenstein. Since World War II, the American landscape has been converted into a n0 laboratory where scientists and the military experiment with the most elemental powers of the universe, inventing weapons of mass destruction, and leaving a legacy of violence in their wake." "Violent Legacies "sends a stark and compelling message about the land we inhabit and our embattled relationship to it. Though the sites depicted here are all in the American West, they symbolize conditions to be found across the globe and in our own backyards. Richard Misrach unveils a landscape of terrible beauty and great metaphorical power. He asks us to confront the violence in human nature, the skeletons in our closet, the radiant glow on the horizon.
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Seller's Description:
This is an ex-library book and may have the usual library/used-book markings inside. This book has hardback covers. In good all round condition. Re-bound by library. Please note the Image in this listing is a stock photo and may not match the covers of the actual item, 1150grams, ISBN: 9780893815691.
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Seller's Description:
This is an ex-library book and may have the usual library/used-book markings inside. This book has hardback covers. Clean from markings In good all round condition. Dust jacket in good condition. Please note the Image in this listing is a stock photo and may not match the covers of the actual item, 1300grams, ISBN: 9780948797279.
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Seller's Description:
Misrach, Richard. Fine in Very Good jacket. 4to-over 9¾"-12" tall. 95pp, full-colour plates throughout. Red board covers, dark red end-papers. New and unread book, faint yellowing around page edges, dust jacket has some dents on back and slight 'rippling' effect near spine. Third volume in the author's 'Desert Cantos' series. Introductory fiction by Susan Sontag. Powerful imagery of the impact humans have on the western desert of the USA.
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Seller's Description:
Very good in Fair jacket. Jacket is rubbed. Jacket edges are worn and creased. Cover corners are lightly bumped. Binding is tight. Pages are slightly yellowed along edges, but otherwise clean and unmarked.
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Fine in fine dust jacket. (MISRACH, RICHARD). Misrach, Richard & Susan Sontag. VIOLENT LEGACIES: THREE CANTOS BY RICHARD MISRACH / FICTION BY SUSAN SONTAG-SIGNED BY THE PHOTOGRAPHER. Signed by the Photographer. New York: Aperture Inc., 1992. First Edition. Oblong 4to. Cloth in Pictorial Dust Jacket. Photography Monograph. Near Fine/Fine. 95pp, profusely illustrated in color. Designed by Roger Gorman. This beautifully designed and printed book collects three bodies of work from Richard Misrach's "Desert Cantos" series accompanied by Susan Sontag's work of short fiction entitled "The View From the Ark". The photographs of Southwestern desert areas include the decaying remains of Utah's Wendover Air Base, wherein 1945 "bomb components were modified, assembled, and flight-tested for the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings"; county designated dead-animal pits in the West filled with the mummified and decaying carcasses of cattle and horses; and a startling series of images of the bullet-riddled pages of two "Playboy" magazines that had been used for target practice found by the photographer at a Nevada Nuclear Test site. It also includes a transcribed 1992 interview with the photographer by Melissa Harris. A most handsome example additionally BOLDLY SIGNED "Richard Misrach" in black ink on the half title page showing a small remainder mark on the bottom edge of the textblock at the heel of the spine. PLEASE NOTE: Additional shipping costs are required for this item beyond our standard rates due to its weight-we will inform you of the applicable amount at time of purchase. 0-89381-519-5 Inventory Number: 019741.
