REVIEW: The Art of Looking Up

The photographs featured in this book are beautifully and skillfully captured and edited and complimented by top notch book design that lets the images take center stage.  

I’m an award winning portrait photographer who has always loved architectural photography, but never been any good at it.  The photographs in this book are captured with extraordinary skill.  I imagine there were a lot of wide-angle lenses in use, but lens warping (an inevitable artifact caused by the construction of wide-angle lenses) has been expertly edited out.  Special attention has also been paid to making sure the images appear on the page in a way that showcases the absolute symmetry of the architecture.  This is a deceptively difficult thing to achieve.  I suspect someone spent a lot of time with the perspective crop tool in PhotoShop to achieve this feat.

The elimination of lens warping in the images is so consistent, that when it does appear, it’s distracting.  I found myself googling the Palazzo Faranese and looking at the overhead satellite view of the structure to see if it was indeed barrel shaped, or if the image on pages 188-189 didn’t get the same editing treatment as others in this book.  

It’s also worth noting the lighting in these photographs.  Ceilings that feature a mix of warm incandescent lighting and “cool” sunlight coming in from windows pose a unique challenge for photographers shooting on digital cameras due to the relative “temperatures” of the lighting mix.  It’s very difficult to balance these extremes, and yet all of the photos in this collection are well exposed.  The brightest areas aren’t washed out, and the darkest areas don’t suffer any loss of discernible detail.  

The photo on page 22-23 of the mosaics of the Church of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ in Russia is an absolute triumph.

The collection is divided into four sections: Religion, Culture, Power, and Politics. Each section is fairly Western European-centric, but there is at least one treasure from the East and the Americas in each section.  The conspicuous lack of works from non European countries could be a function of there not being a cultural tradition of decorative ceilings or it could be difficulty in traveling to those locations to photograph them due to political instability, but the reasons why the book focuses on European artworks is never addressed in the text.

The introductions to the individual artworks provide a good overview of the history of each, its context in overall art history, and its continued cultural significance.  I particularly enjoyed the discussion of the materials used in the construction and decoration of the works and the detailing of how the works have changed and evolved over time with restoration and alterations.  I also appreciate the mix of close detail shots and wider shots that give a strong sense of place to the artworks being featured. 

One final note: The lack of female artists represented in the collection is addressed in the introduction, but briefly and, in my opinion, inadequately.  It simply states that the lack of women in the art form of ceiling decoration “raises interesting questions”. These questions are not actually expressed, let alone answered.  This is hardly “honoring” them as the introduction states.  

2006 Reading Log

1. The Far Side of the World by Patrick O’Brian 

2. The Love of Stones by Tobias Hill

3. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

4. Expecting Adam by Martha Beck

5. The Letter of Marque by Patrick O'Brian

6. The Art of Chainsaw Carving* by Jessie Groeschen

7. Amaryllis* by Starr Ockenga

8. The Thirteen-Gun Salute by Patrick O'Brian

9. American Evita: Hillary Clinton’s Path to Power* by Christopher Andersen

10. The Nutmeg of Consolation by Patrick O’Brian

11. The Truelove by Patrick O’Brian

12. The Wine-Dark Sea by Patrick O’Brian

13. The Commodore by Patrick O’Brian

14. The Shadow of the Giant by Orson Scott Card

15. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

16. Animal Farm by George Orwell

17. Indiana Curiosities by Dick Wolfsie

18. Images of America: New Albany by Gregg Seidl

19. Uppity Women of Ancient Times by Vicki Leon

20. The Yellow Admiral by Patrick O’Brian

21. The Hundred Days by Patrick O’Brian

22. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

23. Blue at the Mizzen by Patrick O’Brian

I remember picking up The Love of Stones by Tobias Hill for $1 because I read the jacket copy and noted that Tobias Hill was a poet who had written his first novel. He’s written many now, and I should read some of his more recent work to see if he’s improved. The Love of Stones was evocative and I adored the scene setting, but the character seemed somewhat one-dimensional, and the story had some pacing issues. In all, I think it could have benefitted from a bit more editing before going to print.

I expected more, lyrically, from an established poet...what I got was an excellent sense of place from the descriptive settings, a choppy plot that doesn't quite knit together fluidly and characters about whom I remain lukewarm. Some of the situations seem a bit contrived, as well...but the story, rather the themes, have stuck with me after two years, so I can't complain that it was an overall bad book. Definitely not good, though.

-From my Goodreads review

I suppose everyone read The Da Vinci Code at some point in the 2000’s. I was no exception. I liked it, but I think people feel like they’re reading something very smart because it deals with art and architecture and classical themes, but it’s not smart fiction, really. It is an excellent example of a thriller, a genre I don’t do much reading in.

I believe I picked up Expecting Adam by Martha Beck as research for a magical realism novel I was attempting to write at the time. I never got much of it committed to paper, but I did a fair bit of outlining, research, and prep for it. It was my first serious attempt at writing a novel, and I’d still like to return to the story at some point. I began it in 2006, but in 2007 a show called Big Bang Theory debuted which took the wind out of my sails as my two main characters were a male scientist on the autism spectrum and a kindly waitress who befriends him…so basically Penny and Sheldon without the supporting cast and add in if Penny were able to do astral projection and Sheldon were a neuroscientist who flatly refused to believe in her abilities.

Amaryllis and The Art of Chainsaw Carving were both coffee table books I picked up at the library just to flip through. They earned the “did not finish” asterisk because I didn’t read them cover to cover, but felt like it was important to record them in my log for some reason. Probably because I wanted to pad the list so it looked like I wasn’t slacking off since I’d read so much in the previous year.

The Shadow of the Giant had been recently released by Orson Scott Card, and this may have been the year that I made the effort to go see him at a signing when he came to town. I remember having SO MUCH social anxiety about going. He’s still cancelled.

And because of this list, I can say definitively that I first read Pride and Prejudice at the age of 25. This would have been the year after the movie adaptation starring Keira Knightley was released, so I probably picked it up in response to that. I was still in the middle reading the Aubrey-Maturin series and those are set in the Regency time period which gives an interesting male and global perspective to Austen’s female and domestic viewpoint. I don’t remember it making a huge impact on me at the time, but I returned to read her other works at a later time and at some point my Austenite fever kicked off, though it’s hard to pinpoint exactly when or what the catalyst truly was.

Animal Farm by George Orwell is a classic that everyone should read. It’s accessible, short, and packs in a lot of societal commentary.

Indiana Curiosities and Images of America: New Albany are on the list because I was doing some further research for that book I was working on, but I also have a keen interest in local history.

Uppity Women of Ancient Times is a fun little collection of mini biographies of prominent female historical figures that “broke the rules” of their societies and are often forgotten in the history books. I haven’t read the bulk of the “feminist canon” but I sometimes pick up something like this. I should probably make a concerted effort to read feminist literature classics, though.

I believe the only reason I picked up Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert is to delay finishing the Patrick O’Brien series I’d so loved. But it’s a beguiling story. The translation I read is gorgeous, and I connected with the story on a much deeper level than I’d expected to. I think the theme of a woman unsatisfied with her life was very relevant to 25 year old me.

And now, the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O’Brian…I can’t think of what to say about these books other than that I adored them. I once picked up a guy in a bar because we got into a discussion about not being able to read these books without being at least a little in love with Steven Maturin. Yeah, that happened.

Patrick O’Brian is a master at creating a world that feels real and fully immersive. And his ability to bring characters into conflict with each other and then bring about a resolution shows his gift for storytelling.

The first chapter was a huge culture shock for me. Having lived my life in a land-locked state, learning the terminology of sailing and seafaring taxed my brain in a very good way. Not only was I trying to follow the development of the characters and absorbing the historical context of the Napoleonic wars of which I had previously known nothing, but I was also thrown immediately into a foreign world of fo'c's'les, wasters, and unfished main yards. I went on to read all 20 of the published volumes, and to master the finer points of the anatomy of a sailing vessel. But beyond that, a fascination with the time period during which the large historical story arcs play out led me ass-backwards into picking up Pride and Prejudice for the first time, which in turn led me into a deep study of all of Jane Austen's works and then onto the Brontes. Would I have gotten around to reading Austen and the Brontes on my own eventually? Probably. But then again maybe not.

-From a 2014 Facebook post about books that influenced me

Eyes on Your Own Paper

Something that happens when you join a writing community and start interacting with other writers regularly is that you, inevitably, start to draw comparisons between their work and yours…or their manner of working or habits and your own.

This is especially prevalent around November when the NaNoWriMo crowd start talking about their word counts and their daily word count goals. Those who look at others who can bang out 5k words in a day and wonder how that is even humanly possible start to feel really discouraged, and I hear a lot of people expressing disappointment in themselves.

Quantity and Quality often have an inverse relationship predicated on how much TIME is invested.

Let me tell you about graphic design. As a professional in the field, new hires would turn up in the office and their portfolios would be amazing! I would look at their stunningly detailed illustrations and be so jealous and feel like an utter hack. I would be in awe of these younger designers who often had the design degree that I lacked and much more polished portfolios.

But then these new hires would sit with me for training and I'd find out things about them that made me feel a lot better. Sometimes they would barely know how to operate Adobe Creative Suite products. They often had no idea how to conduct themselves in a business setting or around clients. They’d have no clue about how to manage client expectations and fulfill a brief, and some even showed a stunning lack of fundamental knowledge about color and creating balanced visuals.

How could these individuals look so good on paper, but be such a disaster in practice?

Often, the secret ingredient was time.

Just looking at a finished piece, you have no concept of how long someone has worked on it. As students, these artists could have spent entire semesters honing that one portfolio piece, workshopping it with their peers and getting the professional advice of their mentors and professors on how to improve it. Or perhaps they'd executed the idea years before and gone back to polish it multiple times before including it in their portfolio.

The famous “rhetoric triangle” adapted for design. Illustration by Betsey Talbot.

But “in production" clients are rarely, if ever, going to pay for the kind of time that a high level of quality requires.

Realistically, designers don't get unlimited hours to invest on executing a brief. In my experience, the client wants things out the door quickly, under budget. The result is often a design that is “good enough”.

As a professional designer, you may not be producing work that takes advantage of everything you’re capable of offering, but your work is solid, your clients are happy, and you're not embarrassed of what you’re putting out into the world…

…until you put your work right next to something someone spent the better part of a year producing…

Then your “quick and dirty” ad campaign looks sub-par in comparison.

Comparison is the thief of joy…and confidence!

So maybe those other writers you keep comparing yourself to who are cranking out 5k words a day are working on book five of a series, so all the heavy lifting of world creation, characterization, and research is done. Maybe they're writing pulp fiction that follows a well established formula that smooths the path for them. Maybe their first drafts are an absolute train wreck.

“Your work may be something with rare depth and originality that just doesn’t spill onto the page and flow like water, but rather oozes up from your depths like crude oil and requires a long process to refine into something precious.”

It's possible that their work is very different to yours. Their work may be plain and derivative whereas you're working on something with rare depth and originality that just doesn't spill onto the page and flow like water, but rather oozes up from your depths like crude oil and requires a long process to refine it into something marketable.

But it’s worth investing the time because what you are left with at the the end of your process, however slow it may be, is something precious and valuable, not something common that can be found almost anywhere.

Trust your process. Respect your pace.

All this is a lot of words simply to say: You do you. Comparing your work with someone else’s is the source of so much suffering. Just because you prefer to edit as you go, or write in quick jolts of inspiration instead of sitting down at 5am every day and putting in a solid two hour block of writing time before letting the distractions of the day get to you doesn’t mean you’re doing it “wrong”. Your process is unique to you. The advice that someone else gives may not empower you to achieve similar results. It may, in fact, disempower you by making you feel self-conscious about the volume of your output.

By all means, try every piece of advice you’re given. Something may really work for you and help you improve your writing routine and the quality of your output. But if a technique or practice doesn’t work for you even though everyone else raves about it being the right thing to do™️, don’t fret about it. Your results may vary. You’re not wrong for doing things the “wrong way”. If it’s working for you, don’t let anyone else discourage you from persevering.