French Landscape

A lyrical atlas of the French landscape This book is the first English-language overview of the landscape photography of Thibaut Cuisset (born 1958), who over the last 30 years has explored issues around the environment and notions of territory. Cuisset has photographed the landscapes of many countries, yet he inevitably returns to the terrain of his native France and its infinite variety. With the acuity of the New Topographics photographers, Cuisset captures the French landscape without frills or nostalgia, and reveals it to be the result of historic layers and constant human interventions. The land is perpetually being shaped and transformed, and Cuisset's quiet lens and restrained virtuosity of color record and authenticate these sometimes subtle processes. The images in this book are tranquil, direct and often imbued with a sense of life (despite the absence of human figures). They form a lyrical atlas of the French landscape, and show just how fragile the land's state of balance and upheaval is.

Published on the occasion of the exhibition of the same name held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, October 27,1999 - March 14, 2000. French landscape is a part of larger exchbition, ModernStarts which is in turn part of a cycle of exchibitions entitled MoMa 2000.

The French Revolution had a marked impact on the ways in which citizens saw the newly liberated spaces in which they now lived. Painting, gardening, cinematic displays of landscape, travel guides, public festivals, and tales of space flight and devilabduction each shaped citizens’ understanding of space. Through an exploration of landscape painting over some 40 years, Steven Adams examines the work of artists, critics and contemporary observers who have largely escaped art historical attention to show the importance of landscape as a means of crystallising national identity in a period of unprecedented political and social change.

The only compact yet comprehensive survey of environmental and cultural forces that have shaped the visual character and geographical diversity of the settled American landscape. The book examines the large-scale historical influences that have molded the varied human adaptation of the continent’s physical topography to its needs over more than 500 years. It presents a synoptic view of myriad historical processes working together or in conflict, and illustrates them through their survival in or disappearance from the everyday landscapes of today.

The Landforms and Landscapes of France provides an informative and attractive overview of the most scenic landscapes of France. The geodiversity of France is emphasized, for example the glacial landscapes of the Mont-Blanc Massif, the volcanoes of the French Massif Central, the chalk cliffs and sand dunes of the Atlantic coast, the granitic landscapes of Corsica or the lagoons and coral reefs of French Polynesia. The objectives are to provide the reader with an enjoyable and informative description of the selected sites within their regional geographical and geological settings; to offer an up-to-date survey of the evolution of France's landscape; and to give additional information on the cultural value of the selected sites wherever appropriate (prehistoric paintings, legends related to sites, famous vineyards, etc.). The book is a richly illustrated reference work that makes accessible for the first time a wealth of information currently scattered among many national and regional journals. It will be of benefit to earth scientists, environmental scientists, tourism geographers and conservationists

Presents an informative introduction to the tradition of French landscape painting. Featuring full-colour illustrations, this title highlights the key moments of the French landscape tradition from its emergence in the 1600s to its pre-eminence in the 1800s.