Animals That Saw Me.
Volume One.
Photographs by Ed Panar.
The Ice Plant, 2011. 80 pp., 36 color and 4 black & white illustrations, 7x8½".
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| Animals That Saw Me by Ed Panar |
The second book I'll feature this week in honor of the 3rd annual Book Fair at Philadelphia Photo Arts Center on Saturday is Animals That Saw Me by Ed Panar. This is such a fun book.I found it by browsing through the lists of best photo books on Photo-Eye. This was on Darius Himes' favorite picks for 2011.
The first thing to love about this book is the beautiful cloth cover and bright yellow liner. I've read reviews calling this a children's book, and in some ways it has the classic look and feel of a vintage child's book. Full of whimsical and fun images, each one of a personal encounter between Panar and an animal. Here is the publisher's description of the book..
Roaming the natural and urban world with a camera for over 16 years, often alone, on foot, keeping a low profile, Ed Panar has repeatedly been caught in the act of photography—not by other people, but by a random assortment of familiar animals: cows, cats, frogs, dogs, turtles, deer, geese…you name it. The animal sees Ed, and Ed sees the animal; an unspoken message passes between them. If he’s lucky, the moment is captured on film, cataloged, tagged for future reference. In Animals That Saw Me: Volume One Panar brings together the first collection of his most surprising and unexpected encounters with ordinary beasts—a brief, deadpan field study of the uncanny moment of recognition between species. As we question exactly what these animals may have seen, the pictures serve as a reminder that we must appear at least as strange and exotic to them as they do to us.
I'm thrilled to have a signed copy of this book in my collection. Ed Panar will be at the Book Fair on Saturday to sign copies of this book as well as his other books, and I look forward to meeting him in person.
