China: The Photographs of Lois Conner

China: The Photographs of Lois Conner

Callaway Editions, 151 pp., $100

Using a large panoramic camera, Lois Conner not only captures what one imagines to be the geographical expansiveness of China, but the effects of time, history, and change on the land and its people. Printed in a larger-than-usual format -- the book is easily twice as wide as it is tall -- examining the book of photos gives the sense that the largeness of China is literally being held in the reader's lap. Dreamy, luscious, expansive, and pensive are only a few words adequate enough to describe her images.

Conner's book moves from pastoral landscapes in Guangxi Province to the more geometric landscapes of cities like Shanghai and Beijing. Her end notes share some interesting stories of taking certain pictures, including her first encounter with the colossal Buddha at Le Shan. In her rush to photograph the great monument in the existing sunlight, she forgot to counterweight her camera. It would have toppled over the side of a precipice were it not for the crowd of people who silently watched her, and yelped in unison to warn her of the pending disaster. While the photographs satisfy on their own pleasure, this reader could not help becoming hungry for more of her recollections on how she managed to take other photographs.