Nadav Kander, Yangtze - The Long River.

As I mentioned a few posts back I went to Paris, and when I was there I treated my self, to a book. Nadav Kaner's Yangtze - The Long River. The first thing that got to me about this book was the size of it, it is almost A3 in size but that does make it significantly better when viewing the images therein. The outside cover is a mid-grey and of an almost linen effect, the only information on the hard back cover is the title Kander's name and the name of the publisher 'Hatje Cantz' there is also a small scale image, a little bigger than a 7x5 on the cover. This simplistic cover, I found, made the book itself ever more intriguing. very little information if given but enough so that ou know what to find. Compared to some of the other books that were on the tables for sale in Paris, Kander's was rather understated but that help it stand out like the one still person in the ever moving crowd at a concert. It almost whispers to you t come over and read it. Which I did. The bok itself is beautifully printed and put together all the image are on the right hand page with the left being left black except for the text telling you what the image opposite is. As most of the information given is the place name, although written in our latin alphabet if you do not know the the geography of China these name are probably meaningless to you. There is a foreword in this book by Kofi Anan in which he talks about the socio-political and environmental messages running through this work. I find this should maybe have been placed after to let images talk first. Now the images them selves are stunning (some of which can be found here) there is a common trend running through them that strikes me the most. The sky. There is none, just cloud, mist or fog. Where we would see bright blues broken with the fluffy whiteness of flying water here there is nothing. A pale yellowy green, white, grey but never a blue. That is almost sad. It makes me sad. there must be some chinese children who have neer seen the blue of the sky. Could you image how they would feel if they say came to england for university and what went though their head when they realise that the sky is blue.