NEW BOOKS & MUSIC THAT ILLUMINATE THE BEAUTY OF SHADOWS NOW

We are surrounded by shadows. More than simply an image cast by the disruption of light, shadows can be defined in countless ways. Check out the ten books below, which offer descriptions of both literal and figurative shadows.

1. NICK BRANDT: ON THIS EARTH, A SHADOW FALLS

[Nick Brandt: On This Earth, A Shadow Falls](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1938922441/ref=aslitl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1938922441&linkCode=as2&tag=beauti064-20&linkId=b01016ddfc9a769b8cf82f3b885ebc49) features the most powerful of his iconic black and white images from his first two books, [On This Earth](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0811848655/ref=aslitl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0811848655&linkCode=as2&tag=beauti064-20&linkId=060d7c861f97b62b9f102fca726b8d44)  and [A Shadow Falls](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/081095415X/ref=aslitl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=081095415X&linkCode=as2&tag=beauti064-20&linkId=e0203a99a4bbcc2522f0e43629768be3) , combined in a beautiful linen-bound volume, printed in quadratone.

Brandt’s images are rich in their use of shadow, to create monumental portraits of East Africa’s magnificent animals, much in the style of old master paintings.

With essays by Peter Singer, Jane Goodall, Alice Sebold, and Vicki Goldberg, this book is an important last testament to a world that is becoming a shadow of itself, as many of these animals are headed for extinction.

Brandt’s Big Life Foundation aims to help save East Africa’s animals. Check it out to see how you can help too.

Big Life Editions.

2. THE SUBSTANCE OF SHADOW: A DARKENING TROPE IN POETIC HISTORY

[The Substance of Shadow: A Darkening Trope in Poetic History](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/022635427X/ref=aslitl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=022635427X&linkCode=as2&tag=beauti064-20&linkId=ed5155748e5322fc86efc0fe4be98764) , by poet & scholar John Hollander, traces the history of shadow in British and American poetry from the Renaissance to the end of the 20th Century.

Based on Hollander’s Cambridge University Clark Lectures, the book examines how writers such as Dante, Shakespeare, Milton, Poe, Dickinson, Eliot, and Stevens used shadow metaphors as they expressed emotional ideas about dreams, desires, doubt, and death.

University Of Chicago Press.

3. MARCEL BROOTHAERS: MY OGRE BOOK, SHADOW THEATER, MIDNIGHT

[Marcel Broodthaers: My Ogre Book, Shadow Theater, Midnight](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1938221117/ref=aslitl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1938221117&linkCode=as2&tag=beauti064-20&linkId=183305e941172d4081ba6ed4a22bc041) , by the late Belgian artist-poet Marcel Broodthaers, combines two of his early poetry collections with his 80-image projection work, Shadow Theater. The metaphorical dance of shadows and light, in both image and text, take us into a fantastical fairytale world, almost cinematic in feel.  

Siglio.

4. EMERGING FROM THE SHADOWS -- VOLUMES 1-4

In [Emerging from the Shadows](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0764348612/ref=aslitl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0764348612&linkCode=as2&tag=beauti064-20&linkId=9c98b2cb8cca4197772e22a142b2193c), Maurine St. Gaudens puts together a stunning collection of 2,000 images of work from 320 California-based female artists, some known, some unknown, all trailblazers over the past century.

The 4 volumes not only portray the work, they also include descriptive details that will bring these artists out of the shadows and leave you inspired by their amazing lives as you are immersed in their spectacular art.

Schiffer.

5. IN THE SHADOW A SHADOW: THE WORK OF JOAN JONAS

Artist Joan Jonas has produced an impressive collection of works across a range of media, including video, performance, sculpture, and installation. Author Joan Simon details more than 4 decades of the artist’s career in her new book, [In the Shadow a Shadow: The Work of Joan Jonas](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0980024285/ref=aslitl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0980024285&linkCode=as2&tag=beauti064-20&linkId=e140c85a65c8844af6dd179037addefe) .

The book contains hundreds of full-color photographs, drawings, scripts and diagrams. Further depth is offered in essays by Donald Crimp, Barbara Clausen, and Johanna Burton.

Gregory R. Miller & Co.

 

6. SHADOWS: ALEXANDRA GRANT & KEANU REEVES

In Shadows by artist Alexandra Grant & actor/writer Keanu Reeves, shadows are explored, both physically and symbolically. Grant captures Reeves’s shadows, using different photography techniques, portraying them both with opaque silhouette and with traces of light as subject and photographer moved together.

Some images are transformed with color, while others reverse light and darkness. Reeves’s writing adds emotional expression.

Steidl.

7. ISHIUCHI MIYAKO: POSTWAR SHADOWS

[Ishiuchi Miyako: Postwar Shadows](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/160606455X/ref=aslitl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=160606455X&linkCode=as2&tag=beauti064-20&linkId=c2ec4bbc6d5fb12c7c78c8ea91eb8c39)  contains over 100 works by the maverick photographer, along with essays expounding upon her work. Ishiuchi first distinguished herself in a male-dominated field in the 1970’s by producing grainy, shadowy images of postwar Japan, highlighting the shadows cast by American occupation.

 

Her touching photos show us the physical and emotional scars of the country. In 2014 she received the Hasselblad Award for the impressive work she’s created over her forty-year career. Ishiuchi is one of the most significant photographers working in Japan today.

You can view Ishiuchi’s works, on exhibition at the J. Paul Getty Museum, in California, through February 21, 2016.

J. Paul Getty Museum.

8. SHADOWS: THE DEPICTION OF CAST SHADOWS IN WESTERN ART

Top art historian E.H. Gombrich explores the way cast shadows have been used in Western art through different periods and artistic styles in his book, [Shadows: The Depiction of Cast Shadows in Western Art](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0300210043/ref=aslitl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0300210043&linkCode=as2&tag=beauti064-20&linkId=39d10b6663f753c16b957ba142fef760) .

Gombrich points how shadows, once ignored and then exploited, added definition and meaning to imagery from the Renaissance to the 17th century to the Romantic, Impressionist, and Surrealist periods.

Also available as an enhanced eBook, with zoomable images and accompanying film footage.

Yale University Press.

9. A BALANCE OF SHADOWS: GREGG CHADWICK’S PAINTINGS

[A Balance of Shadows: Gregg Chadwick's Paintings](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1364389894/ref=aslitl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1364389894&linkCode=as2&tag=beauti064-20&linkId=62cb341633f9f8c374a9cb44ecbe5d0b) , by the artist’s brother, Kent Chadwick,  offers a retrospective that the use of shadow and light to create works that are highly spiritual in nature. The paintings invite the viewer to not only focus on the subject matter, but also to perceive what potentially lies beyond.

Wisdom Press.

10. BOB DYLAN’S SHADOW IN THE NIGHT

In his latest album release, [Shadows in the Night](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QR7ZM8A/ref=aslitl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00QR7ZM8A&linkCode=as2&tag=beauti064-20&linkId=dd2926822f751dae8859e8a4c8a7c759) , Bob Dylan transforms a collection of American standards into more spiritual meditations, with his raw, gravelly, moody renditions.

Unlike most of the artist’s other works, all ten songs on the album have been composed by others, including Rodgers & Hammerstein, Irving Berlin, Matt Dennis & Tom Adair, Frank Sinatra and Buddy Kaye.

Foregoing the style of the crooners who sang before him, Dylan and his band use a languid, minimalistic style to shadow the greats, while giving these vintage ballads new life in the new millennium.

Columbia Records.

Read more about Beautiful Shadows this week.

And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact Daily Fix posts.

IMAGE CREDITS:

1. Image: Courtesy of Big Life Editions. Nick Brandt: On This Earth, A Shadow Falls, by Nick Brandt.
2. Image: Courtesy of Big Life Editions. Nick Brandt: On This Earth, A Shadow Falls, by Nick Brandt.
3. Image: by Nick Brandt. Ranger with Tusks of Killed Elephant, Amboseli.
4. Image: Courtesy of University Of Chicago Press. The Substance of Shadow: A Darkening Trope in Poetic History, by John Hollander.
5. Image: Courtesy of Siglio. Marcel Broodthaers: My Ogre Book, Shadow Theater, Midnight, by Marcel Broodthaers.
6. Image: Courtesy of Schiffer. Emerging from the Shadows Vols 1-4, by Maurine St. Gaudens &  Martin A. Folb (Photographer).
7. Image: Courtesy of Gregory R. Miller & Co. In the Shadow a Shadow: The Work of Joan Jonas, by Joan Simon, Johanna Burton, Barbara Clausen, & Joan Jonas.
8. Image: Courtesy of Steidl. Alexandra Grant & Keanu Reeves: Shadows.
9. Image: Courtesy of Lapis Press. Shadow, after Keanu Reeves's "And you couldn't hold me in that way all things hoped," by Alexandra Grant. Pigmented ink on paper.
10. Image: Courtesy of  J. Paul Getty Museum. Ishiuchi Miyako: Postwar Shadows.
11. Image: Courtesy of  J. Paul Getty Museum. Ishiuchi Miyako: Postwar Shadows.
12. Image: Courtesy of Yale University Press. Shadows: The Depiction of Cast Shadows in Western Art, by E. H. Gombrich.
13. Image: Courtesy of Wisdom Press. A Balance of Shadows: Gregg Chadwick's Paintings, by Kent Chadwick.
14. Image: Courtesy of Columbia Records. Shadows in the Night, by Bob Dylan.
15. Image: Courtesy of Big Life Editions. Nick Brandt: On This Earth, A Shadow Falls, by Nick Brandt.
16. Image: Courtesy of Big Life Editions. Nick Brandt: On This Earth, A Shadow Falls, by Nick Brandt.
17. Image: by BN App - Download now!
18. Image: Courtesy of Lapis Press. Shadow, after Keanu Reeves's "And I knew I was done and you were gone forever," by Alexandra Grant. Pigmented ink on paper.