Post by Libraraptor on Oct 21, 2009 9:39:30 GMT
Although no man ever saw a non-bird dinosaur alive, dinosaurs have accompanied man since the first "dragon bones" were discovered. Possible reasons for this phenomenon have very well been exposed by English language and literature professor W.J.T. Mitchell in his highly esteemed "The Last Dinosaur Book" in 1998.
The mediums by which dinosaurs seem to look for their chance to communicate to us are children and art.
Children are mediums for dinosaurs to speak to us. We experience this day by day on our TV programs. Dinosaurs as representants of our archetype nature are alternatively tamed, mocked or unleashed, waking primal fears.
Dinosaurs and art have been encountering for a very long time now. The first dragon constructions date back to biblical times, returning during mediaeval times to eventually blossom out in the industrialization and explode from 1969 (when Deinonychus was discovered) on to nowadays.
The dinosaur meme emerges in art in different ways: Literature, paintings and photography. Precious evidence to this is given by the branch of "palaeoart". A good summary of this gives the book "Dinosaur Imagery. The Lanzendorf Collection" by John Lanzendorf, Philip J. Currie and Michael Tropea.
Another great product of the encounter of dinosaurs and art is "dinopix" by Japanese artist Teruhisa Tajima. It was released in 1994, but not until today it found its way to me as a collector.
I am highly delighted about an artists dedicating a whole book to the cool idea of copying prehistoric behemoths into modern landscapes, including city panoramas. A whole bunch of dinosaur lovers worldwide, I am myself part of it, spend a part of their free time placing dinosaur toys and models in landscapes, photographing and pulishing them. There even is an annual "dinosaur diorama contest".
Dating back to 1994, Tajima´s book can be seen as forerunner of this phenomenon. The difference to most of the other dinosaur enthusiasts´ pictures is that these ones have been taken and dealt with on a highly professional level. I am not a photographer myself, but I can absolutely approve both ideas and their transfer in this coffee-table book, at which this description actually does not suffice.
It is more - it is art.
The pages are layouted accurately and clearly. Typewriter letters write the species´ names, followed by the place the dinosaur is located at. Then follows theoretical information on the scientifical categorization of the animal and hypothetical informations about nature and features. The pictures are of high detail and very credible.
The idea of ancient dinosaurs in modern enviroments was later continued by British author Robert Mash in his funny lateral thinker - book "How to keep dinosaurs". The approach of photorealistic dinosaur pictures has also been chosen by Dougal Dixon in his 1984 book "The Age of Dinosaurs", making this release to a predecessor of the reviewed one.
It would be great if Tajima´s book could experience a renaissance 15 years after its release. It occasionally shows up in modern second- hand bookshops, ebay and amazon.
What a splendid book! I was lucky to have one.