In Waste Land, photographer David T. Hanson presents a picture of our environment that is unfamiliar and deeply disturbing. It is, however, a picture that must be looked at and contended with if our environment is to survive. In the words of the writer Wendell Berry, Hanson has "given us the topography of our open wounds." Waste Land is a powerful book that will not permit us to turn our backs on the declining state of our environment.

During the past fifteen years of his career as an artist/photographer, Hanson has documented-- often in aerial photographs that are deceptively, inexorably beautiful-- some of the devastations that humans have inflicted and continue to impose upon the environment. Each of the four photographic series in this book provides a different look at the consequences of our actions.

Waste Land opens with a series of photographs of strip mines in Colstrip, Montana that Hanson created in the early 1980s, a series he describes as "a chronicle of entropy, an elegy for a lost landscape." Beginning with photographs depicting trailer parks and company houses-- void of any human presence-- the vantage point moves upwards through images of the community's mine, power plant, and industrial site, to aerial shots that become increasingly abstract. Ultimately, the series reveals Colstrip as arena and metaphor for the use, misuse, and abuse of power.

Hanson's Minuteman Missile Sites series focuses on one aspect of the American industrial and military landscape: bleak aerial views of silos, each containing a missile with a destructive potential nearly a hundred times that of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. These images disclose some of America's secret landscapes; they mirror in both form and content the military's applications of photography for surveillance and targeting.

The harrowing centerpiece of this book is Hanson's Waste Land series. In 1982, from some 400,000 toxic sites throughout the U.S.A., the Environmental Protection Agency listed 418 as highly hazardous and in need of urgent attention. In only a few years, that number more than tripled. Waste Land is a study of sixty-seven of the most dangerously polluted waste sites in the United States. In this series of triptychs, Hanson juxtaposes an aerial photograph, a modified topographic map, and an EPA site description exposing some of the elaborate legal strategies that corporations and individuals have used to avoid taking responsibility for the contamination-- or the cleanup.

The book's final sequence is devoted to Hanson's recent series, ironically entitled "The Treasure State": Montana 1889-1989. Here, the photographer begins with an aerial view of a site that affects one of Montana's imperiled species, and overlays each image with a sheet of glass, discreetly etched with the name of the impacted animal. Perhaps the most visually abstract series in the book, "The Treasure State" features haunting, intensely colorful images that lure the viewer in, only to be struck by the realization that a vital and sustaining element of this landscape is on the brink of disappearing.

Waste Land includes an Afterword by Mark Dowie, author of 1995's Losing Ground: American Environmentalism at the Close of the Twentieth Century. In his text, Dowie explores the historical mutability of our country's policies toward the environment. The book also features poignant commentary by Susan Griffin, William Kittredge, Peter Montague and Maria B. Pellerano, and Terry Tempest Williams.

"The power of these photographs is in their terrifying, because undeniable, particularity....What we can see in these vandalized and perhaps irreparable landscapes we are obliged to understand as symbolic of what we cannot see: the steady seeping of poison into our world and our bodies."--Wendell Berry, in the Preface to this book

"Synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

D & E LAKE LTD. (ABAC/ILAB)

Toronto, ON, Canada

3-star seller

AbeBooks seller since August 20, 1998

Association member:

Shipping rates from Canada to U.S.A.

Item	4 to 10 business days	4 to 7 business days
First item	£ 11.09	£ 18.48

Delivery times are set by sellers and vary by carrier and location. Orders passing through Customs may face delays and buyers are responsible for any associated duties or fees. Sellers may contact you regarding additional charges to cover any increased costs to ship your items.

Payment methods

Store description

Member: ILAB, ABAC In business since 1977. Retail shop with large stock, comprising: Old & Rare Books in most fields, Specializing in Voyages and Travels, Canadiana/America, Early Printed Books, Illustrated Books, Human Sciences 20th Century Books on Art & Decorative Arts, Architecture, Books about Books Antique Maps & Prints

Specialty

Voyages and Travels, Early Printed Books, Canadiana/Americana, Illustrated Books, Art & Architecture, Decorative Arts

Association member

Members of these associations are committed to maintaining the highest standards. They vouch for the authenticity of all items offered for sale. They provide expert and detailed descriptions, disclose all significant defects and/or restorations, provide clear and accurate pricing, and operate with fairness and honesty during the purchase experience.

Seller's business information

D. & E. Lake Ltd.

239 King Street East
Toronto, ON Canada M5A 1J9

Contact sellerView this seller's itemsView seller's storefront

Terms of sale

All prices are net in US dollars.
Shipping, handling, & insurance charges are extra.
Canadian residents are subject to applicable taxes.
All items are guaranteed to be authentic and as described.
All items are in very good or better condition unless
otherwise stated; major defects are noted.
Images available upon request.
All items are offered subject to prior sale.
All items are returnable within 30 days with prior notification if found to be not as described.
Libraries may request that orders be shipped with an invoice.

Right of withdrawal

If you are a consumer you can withdraw from the contract in accordance with the following. Consumer means any natural person who is acting for purposes which are outside his trade, business, craft or profession.

Information regarding the right of withdrawal

Statutory right to withdraw

You have the right to withdraw from this contract within 14 days without giving any reason.

The withdrawal period will expire after 14 days from the day on which you acquire, or a third party other than the carrier and indicated by you acquires, physical possession of the last good or the last lot or piece.

To exercise the right of withdrawal, electronically fill in and submit a clear statement on our website, under "My Purchases" in "My Account". We will communicate to you an acknowledgement of receipt of such a withdrawal on a durable medium (e.g. by e-mail) without delay.

To meet the withdrawal deadline, it is sufficient for you to send your communication concerning your exercise of the right of withdrawal before the withdrawal period has expired.

Effects of withdrawal

If you withdraw from this contract, we will reimburse to you all payments received from you, including the costs of delivery (except for the supplementary costs arising if you chose a type of delivery other than the least expensive type of standard delivery offered by us).

We may make a deduction from the reimbursement for loss in value of any goods supplied, if the loss is the result of unnecessary handling by you.

We will make the reimbursement without undue delay, and not later than 14 days after the day on which we are informed about your decision to withdraw from this contract.

We will make the reimbursement using the same means of payment as you used for the initial transaction, unless you have expressly agreed otherwise; in any event, you will not incur any fees as a result of such reimbursement.

We may withhold reimbursement until we have received the goods back, or you have supplied evidence of having sent back the goods, whichever is the earliest.

You shall send back the goods or hand them over to D & E LAKE LTD. (ABAC/ILAB), Toronto, Ontario, Canada, +1 416-863-9930, without undue delay and in any event not later than 14 days from the day on which you communicate your withdrawal from this contract to us. The deadline is met if you send back the goods before the period of 14 days has expired. You will have to bear the direct cost of returning the goods. You are only liable for any diminished value of the goods resulting from the handling other than what is necessary to establish the nature, characteristics and functioning of the goods.

Exceptions to the right of withdrawal

The right of withdrawal does not apply to:

The delivery of newspapers, journals or magazines with the exception of subscription contracts; and
The supply of digital content which is not supplied on a tangible medium (e.g. on a CD or DVD) if you accepted when you placed your order that we could start to deliver it, and that you could not withdraw once delivery had started.

Shipping terms

All orders are carefully and solidly packaged and are shipped in a timely manner. Shipping costs are based on books weighing 2.2 LB, or 1 KG. If your book order is heavy or oversized, we may contact you to let you know extra shipping is required. We ship once a week with USPS, if you need an item fast, we may have use Canadapost or a courier if you just missed our ship date for USPS parcels.

Waste Land Meditations on a Ravaged Landscape.

Item description from seller

Bibliographic details

Synopsis

About the title

About the Author