Delahaye Reviews

This anthology, actually the first issue of what one hopes will be a highly successful literary magazine, is chock full of treasures. One could do a lot worse to discover the voices of tomorrow than look herein. Let's hope this issue garners its contributors some recognition, some prizes and careers to make readers heads swim for decades to come.

I absolutely love this book. It is a fine collection of stories by current, up and coming, new and established, honest and intellegent writers who write because they have always written. And while I've read it cover to cover, I still flip through for inspiration and laughs. Keep it by the bed, keep it under your pillow, but keep it near by if you can't read it until later, like after dinner, or whatever, just keep it around, because this little gem deserves a read.

This is a fine collection of new writings. Jeff Boison and Whitney Pastorek have outdone themselves. The selections by Bob Beier, Thisbe Nissen and the novelist Tom Bradley particularly stand out. Tom Bradley takes us deep into the Chinese jungle, to the lair of a witch who listens to Lennie Tristano on a transistor radio. PINDELDYBOZ is a must-read!

For new trainers, experienced trainers and managers of training, this book is invaluable. As a full-time adult training specialist for almost twenty years, I have read many books on the subject, and this is the one I always recommend. The authors have managed to include the important theory on how adults learn best, without getting boring, and then use this theory to support many practical techniques for trainers to use, so you know what will work, and why. Occasional trainers and new full-time trainers will find all the basics, experienced trainers will find ways of improving or varying techniques, managers will find ways of supporting the training process. Topics include Learning Principles, Training Needs Analysis, Leading Discussions, Questions, Case Studies, Training Aids, Computer-Based Training, Marketing Training and many more.

Throughout the pages of this wonderful work, the author gives a thorough picture of the subject of contract rescission and resolution. Belgian law is scrutinezed, and reference to French and other legal systems are made. The work, devoted to a modern topic of economic contract law, makes useful reading for any professional working or doing academic research on the field, and can easily be understood in its clear french. Most of the proposed doctrines will be applicable to any Civil Law based country, and will certainly show an insightful view on the subject for the common law user. For this reason, the work may be clasified as universal

Luc Delahaye is a Magnum photojournalist who has made some amazing reportages from the world's war zones over the last decade. L'Autre however, is not a book of these photographs. Between 1995 and 1997 Delahaye took photographs of passengers on the Paris Metro with a hidden camera. The close-up vertical portraits show people of all different ages and races staring off into space in typical subway fashion. The book closely resembles fellow Magnum photographer Gilles Peress' 1995 book The Silence in design, and besides this interesting design I do not think the book is too incredible. The photographs did not need to be put in a book.

Delahaye surreptitiously shot passengers on the Paris metro. His black and white full bleed shots reveal the interior blankness of everyday life distracted, preoccupied, faces staring inwardly, anxious, close-lipped that Baudrillard characterises as "absent from their lives, raised to the tragic impersonal figuration of their destiny". A mute drama.

For two years, the author photographed passengers in the Paris metro with a hidden camera. The result is this simple collection of vertical, black and white portraits. Never before such a level of truth was reached in portrait photography.

An original idea set in the Arab-Israeli conflict. While excavating achelogical sites in occupied territories, Israelis discover the bones of what may be Jesus Christ. But wait? If Christianity says Christ rose from the dead, how could these be his bones? Israel knows the religous conflict in the church and among Christians if this discovery is revealed so Israel decides to sit on the discovery until she needs to play the card. Sure enough, years later there is increasing preasure on Israel to make with the Palestinians by America. Israel decides to play its card and the race is on to prove, disprove or destroy the mysterious bones. Fascinating, original, thought provoking.

This book will tell you more about the author than about his subject...

As someone who lived in the Soviet Union for 22 years, and someone who still visits Russia at least 3 times a year, I have one word for the this book - "chernucha" (Russian word for something that is deliberately made to be depressing by concentrating on the negative). The author has spent all this time in Russia, and this is all he found worthy of photographing?!?! I guess some people can only find inspiration in human depravity.

If you like photography, you will enjoy it, because the pictures are masterful. But if you are looking for a balanced photojournalistic account, stay far away.

This is a collection of documentary photographs of Russia, which was taken by Magnum photographer Luc Delahaye, during 1998-1999. The warm and contrast colour make you feel like unreal on the scenario. It provides you with an insight into the life and living environment of ordinary people in the places. Some photos somehow look like a paintings. It is not a 'great' (in size) photographic book, but the 'diary' like size makes you get closer and have intimate touch with the subject and photographer's eye.

Nice and intimate touch ...

Everyone has seen the Russia of fairytales in storied picture books, but Luc Delahaye seems to be the first photographer to cut through the glossy exterior of a time long gone by to show the Russia of today. I've spent nearly 5 years in this country and get chills when looking through this book as it reminds me of so many images I saw first-hand here. My own journals from my time here don't even come close to Luc Delahaye's depiction of what more than 70 years of a system gone wrong can do to a society.

I could not believe how bad this book was I am struggling with the concept that the publisher saw something in it.The photography is flat, boring and uneventful.The ideas the florist has created are nothing special.I buy many books and certainly wished I had never seen this one.I believe the best book to buy is Wolterinck now there is talent and skill.the photography is well done and the book has a good flow.

I enjoyed this book very much. Sensational Bouquets is rich in new thoughts about what flowers and plants represent, filled with novel arrangements, and is enriched by outstanding photography of those arrangements. After reading and viewing this book, you will never think about nature and natural beauty in quite the same way. You will be the richer for the experience, because your sense of beauty will expand as a result.

Christian Tortu grew up on a truck farm in Anjou, and is proud of his agricultural roots. Now he designs backdrops for fashion shows and the Cannes Film Festival. He operates floral shops in major cities around the world.

Let me share a little of his philosophy, as described in the many sections he wrote for the book. "Each plant is a fragment of a landscape . . . ." In his arrangements, he creates that sense of landscape in a way that I have never seen before in flower arrangements. Nature is palpable in them.

"If man were to stop rushing around for one moment, he might take a look at flowers -- and then take a closer look." I remember having that experience in the orchid garden in Honolulu. I was enthralled with the beautiful blossoms in my 20 minute self-guided tour. As I was about to leave, an elderly gentleman asked me if I would like to have some help in looking around. I agreed, and spent the next three hours going over the same ground with him. Except I saw about 100 times as much with his help. I was astonished at how many delightful orchids I had totally missed in my haste (and I had thought I was being leisurely).

"In time, his convictions would crumble, and he would realize classification is fruitless even beyond flowers." People love to judge, and that judgment gets in the way of really seeing and experiencing life. So these arrangements are a metaphor for breaking down our closed mental sets.

The basic premise is that "all flowers are created equal." Weeds and shrubbery get as much attention as rare orchids. And the moment of perfection is not all that is explored. " . . . [E]very stage of the flower is a moment that deserves attention." One bouquet even captures burned foliage and flowers after a fire. Seeing these images makes one realize the truth of these observations. " . . . [I]n the name of harmony, each one [arrangement] has its own touch of anarchy."

Mr. Tortu changes things in terms of color, type of composition, and form. I was especially fascinated by his many monochromatic arrangements, especially the green bouquets.

The book is done in sections: Genesis; Revolution(s); Crossroads; and the Chronicle of a Black Bouquet. Using these themes makes it easier to appreciate the statements his designs make.

Here are my favorites in the book:

Agave foliage with euchasis in gray wax vases

Green tomatoes and basil, tomato flowers, dog rose fruit and vine foliate

Green arum lilies, tea grass, viburnum, and narcissus buds

Garlic flower and nasturtium

Nasturtium, wild strawberries, and blackberries

Privet berries and King Arthur orchids

Lime tree branches and iris

Violets

White hyacinth, and catmint

Osage orange, pears and chayote, quince, eggplant, and begonia

After you enjoy this delightful book, I suggest that you take some other element of nature and see how arranging it differently changes your perceptions. Now that it is spring, you could start by taking fresh shoots and making arrangements of them in new combinations, new shapes, and in different types of containers.

Open your mind to the potential of new combinations, expressed in new ways!