Feininger A. Roots of Art: The Sketchbook of a Photographer

Viking Press, 1975. — 186 p.I consider this volume the equivalent of the sketchbook of the artist — a random collection of observations, notations, impressions, conclusions, and thoughts. Readers who look for organization will probably be disappointed — there is very little. For this is not a book that has a beginning and an end, nor was it conceived to lead the viewer from the general to the specific. Rather, it is an invitation to browsing where looking should be followed by contemplation. Each picture was chosen with this goal in mind: to stimulate the viewer, show him familiar objects in a new light, and make h im ponder. I want the reader to become aware of the fact that there are universal principles in nature that apply equally to people and beasts; that the atoms and molecules that form his body are identical with those that constitute the rocks and plants and animals. And I want h im to feel related to all the objects of nature without which none of us could exist — we, dependent human beings, ephemeral fragments of nature, yet parts of the Universe.