Monument.

Monument. Photographs by Lynn Davis. Text by Rudolph Wurlitzer and Patti Smith. Arena Editions, 1999. 144 pp., illustrated throughout, 10,5x11,5". Images from photo-eye.

Book description:

"Over the years, Lynn Davis has become widely celebrated for her large-scale photographs of 'monuments' of the human and natural landscape from around the world.

Whether depicting the ancient pyramids of Giza, the temples of Cambodia, or the icebergs of Greenland, Davis articulates both the omnipotent forces of nature and the most resolute building endeavors ever undertaken by man.

Davis's aesthetic is cool and refined; her sparse composition and controlled modeling of light evoke solitude and contemplation.

Travel has become an essential component of Davis's work, building on a long-standing tradition of travel photography, particularly from the nineteenth century. Evident in her minimal imagery is a reverence for the monuments she visits for their grace of form and for the extraordinary feats of their producers.


Lynn Davis's photographs are accompanied by texts by Patti Smith and Rudolph Wurlitzer that contemplate the sheer beauty of Davis's photography and the context of travel in which they are produced."

Read Patti Smith's introduction here.


A limited edition of 'Monument' is available. The photographs has been "reproduced in color to accurately represent the rich tonality of her black-and-white prints".
It's limited to an edition of 50 signed, numbered and boxed editions and comes with an unpublished and signed photograph, which is only available with this edition.