Feininger A. Nature and Art: A Photographic Exploration

Dover Publications, 1983. — 148 p.It is in its widest sense that I use the word "art" in the title of this book and the following discussions. For it seems to me that, in the last analysis, everything made by human hands or conceived by the human mind has its roots in nature. To give only two examples: the prototype of the ball-and-socket joint is the hip; the principle underlying a sophisticated system for detecting and locating objects by means of the sound waves they reflect — sonar — was "discovered" aeons ago by bats who use it to target their prey.I consider this volume the equivalent of the sketchbook of an artist — a random collection of observations, 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, a middle and an end. Nor was it conceived to guide 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, make him aware of strange and sometimes inexplicable connections.