Product Description

Moving from the cascading waters of Niagara Falls to the massive volcanoes of Hawaii, renowned nature photographer Philippe Bourseiller takes readers on a captivating visual journey through 67 of the most magnificent natural sites in North America. The product of an entire year spent coursing the length and breadth of the United States, America’s Parks captures the amazing diversity and ecological richness of some of our most important natural wildlife areas.

Bourseiller’s free-ranging camera captures more than 200 breathtaking aerial and terrestrial images of wild America, from Mount St. Helens to the ice fields of Alaska, while essays from three prominent environmental journalists place the sites in historical, scientific, and sociological context. The result is a sumptuous panorama of unrivalled beauty that argues eloquently for environmental protection.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #782527 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 400 pages

From Booklist
Yes, technically this is a photography book--a big, oversize album of gorgeous photographs taken in 54 of America's national parks. Bourseiller spent a full year traversing the country, from Alaska and Hawaii to the East Coast. Dramatic, startling, riveting, and wanderlust-inducing, to say nothing of their aesthetic appeal as artwork, these full-color (emphasis on color) shots take the reader's eye on a visual feast, from an overwhelming shot across the Grand Canyon to an almost frightening photo of a sunning alligator in the Florida Everglades to beautiful foliage in the White Mountains of New Hampshire to moss-draped cypresses in Louisiana's Atchafalaya Basin. The diversity of the national park system couldn't be made more obvious, and the easily engaged viewer will see that this is travel literature--in a strictly visual style. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
Philippe Bourseiller, five-time winner of the prestigious World Press Prize, travels the world photographing wild and unexplored places, and is based in Paris. This is his fourth book with Abrams.

Jean-François Chaix is a freelance journalist, translator, and travel writer based in Paris. He collaborated previously with Bourseiller on Call of the Desert: The Sahara.

Gary Ferguson is the author of 14 books on nature and science. He lives in Montana.

Roger Cans is an environmental writer who contributes to the French newspaper Le Monde and lives in Paris.

Customer Reviews

Magnificant Photographs
I'm lucky enough to live in the American West, and have visited most of the western parks. When I go there I don't even take a camera and I've often asked why. In answering I simply point to a book. In the past this has usually been an Ansel Adams. In the future it's going to be this one. My own picture taking ability is so pathetic when compared to these that I have to say 'why bother.'

In the past I've found the black and white photographs from Adams and others to be better than color. With this book, that has changed. The pictures here are in color, but color with a richness that has to be seen to be believed. I can't imagine what M. bourseiller has done to get such rich reds, such subtle greens, and restful blues. I can only imagine the time he must have spent looking for the right spot, waiting for the sun to be just so, even for the moon to appear just under that arch. The printing quality has likewise matched the photographic quality. It has changed my view completely.

This new book consists of relatively recent photographs of some 53 National Parks. I've been to most of them, and this book is a better way to remember them than any picture I could possibly have taken. It's simply magnificant.

America's Parks Review
This was a gift for my husband and he loves it. The images are pretty amazing. The book itself is a little oversized and not very easy to hold. Also it would be better if each image had a little blurb to explain where exactly and when the image was shot. Otherwise I'd recommend this book for any keen outdoor types who love photography.

4.5 Stars: Magnificent Compositions, A Few Reproduction Issues
As a professional photographer this type of book is what inspires me to get off my butt when I've been sitting in the office too long, focusing on Photoshop or other things, and go do what I love: photograph nature! As a collection of compositions this book is outstanding. Just make sure those kids or guests wash their hands first so they don't get their grubby little grease prints all over the more darkly lit shots! ;-) The book is that nice: you'll want to keep it well preserved for many to see.

A few minor glitches: though the book arrived in good condition with the binding fully intact and tightly wound (with plastic wrap still intact, in fact!), there were maybe 8 or 10 shots where either the color image did not translate well at all from film scan to CMYK press, or where the authors just made a bad choice in presentation. For example one of the shots of an Aspen grove is completely over saturated and has an almost false-color look to it. I believe this is a result of the CMYK process as the natural warm tones of the fall foliage fell outside of their printer's gamut, so they compensated by shifting and saturating the colors to something that was in-gamut, but it didn't work out too well. :) Also several shots could have benefitted from noise reduction / retouching after being scanned. I say scanned because it appears to my eyes that these shots were taken mostly on 35mm or medium format film. The grain has a certain character that doesn't look like digital noise, but which still could've been easily remedied with a little post-production, without changing the original character of the image.

All in all though a fantastic coffee table book (it's pretty huge though so make sure you have space - would be a shame to squirrel this thing away somewhere, in a drawer for example).