Stillness & Light: The Silent Eloquence of Shaker Architecture

Henry Plummer

ISBN 10: 0253353629 / ISBN 13: 9780253353627

Published by Indiana University, 2009

About this Item

Inscribed by the author on the half-title page. Dust jacket faded along edges. Seller Inventory # 101913

Bibliographic Details

Title: Stillness & Light: The Silent Eloquence of ...

Publisher: Indiana University

Publication Date: 2009

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Fine

Dust Jacket Condition: Very good

Signed: Signed by Author(s)

Edition: 1st Edition

About this title

Synopsis:

Shaker buildings have long been admired for their simplicity of design and sturdy craftsmanship, with form always following function. Over the years, their distinctive physical characteristics have invited as much study as imitation. Their clean, unadorned lines have been said to reflect core Shaker beliefs such as honesty, integrity, purity, and perfection. In this book, Henry Plummer focuses on the use of natural light in Shaker architecture, noting that Shaker builders manipulated light not only for practical reasons of illumination but also to sculpt a deliberately spiritual, visual presence within their space. "Stillness and Light" celebrates this subtly beautiful aspect of Shaker innovation and construction, captured in more than 100 stunning photographs.

Review:

"This is a book that you will want to have open and in sight, turning its pages from time to time, absorbing the meditation its photographs evoke. The stillness is the stillness of concentration, a quieting of the mind that could be termed soulful. The light glowing from its pages is transformative. The words bring thought to place, echoing original intent, giving their own illumination to the qualities of Shaker life and thought. The quality of color and light indeed give "earthbound rooms a skyward inflection". The photographs are masterful; their vantage, profound. Plummer's work not only records Stillness and Light, it gives them." --Donlyn Lyndon, Eva Li Professor of Architecture, University of California, Berkeley

"[These] spaces ... are mirages infused with a sense of reality and epiphany." --Juhani Pallasmaa, Former professor of architecture at Helsinki University of Technology and currently Ruth and Norman Moore Visiting Professor of Architecture at Washington University in St. Louis "I have written that when an architect finds out that LIGHT is the main subject of Architecture, he begins to be a real one. How could a real architect not know about LIGHT? How could a good photographer not control LIGHT? How could a good professor not speak to his students about LIGHT? Henry Plummer, who is a real architect, a splendid photographer, and also a wonderful professor, does all of these things for us in Stillness and Light." -- --Alberto Campo Baeza, Architect and Visiting Faculty at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design

"These images of historic Shaker buildings are stunning." --Stephen J. Stein, author of The Shaker Experience in America