Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

On Planet Earth: Travels in an Unfamiliar Land collects Jan Staller's strangely seductive photographs from locations across the United States and around the world.-from abandoned factories to military test sites, from high-tech water-purification plants to heavy machinery that looks like it fell from outer space. Staller's square-format and panoramic photographs reveal bizarre and forgotten constructions of industrial society, set against a symphony of color and light. A sense of mystery pervades Staller's images: ordinary building devices and machine parts take on the aura of Surrealist sculptures, while common construction sites echo the sacred grounds of ancient civilizations. Using long exposures and a combination of light sources-often photographing at dawn or dusk-Staller produces photographs that are breathtakingly rich in color and intensity. Complementing the images in On Planet Earth is a narrative by Luc Sante, who shares Staller's fascination with urban and industrial wastelands, the history they contain, and the mysteries they conceal. Together, Staller's photographs and Sante's text offer a stimulating, Technicolor tour of the unknown at the edge of the contemporary landscape.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Booklist Review

If science fiction needed visuals, these intense and vivid photographs would be perfect. We've seen these images before--a mountain of salt rock, abandoned bridge pillars, windmills on California hills, and power substations--so what's so special? What Staller does is take them out of our usual points of reference and frame them anew, posing them as new sights in our world. His long exposures and patient use of shadows paint each image in otherworldly shadows. The photos' vivid colors jump out, making viewers look even closer at things they have been seeing for years. A very hip addition to most photography collections. (Reviewed December 15, 1997)0893817309Raul Nino