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30 Works 455 Members 5 Reviews 1 Favorited

About the Author

He was born in Montreal in 1951 & lives in New York City. He has exhibited photographs in Paris, Brasilia, New York, Los Angeles & Minneapolis. He has received numerous honors, including a World Press Award for his coverage of the Getty Museum & two Alfred Eisenstaedt Awards for his work in Havana show more & Brasilia. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Works by Robert Polidori

Libya: The Lost Cities of the Roman Empire (1998) — Photographer — 91 copies
Versailles (1956) — Photographer — 79 copies
Robert Polidori: Eye and I (2014) — Photographer — 6 copies
Robert Polidori (1782) 2 copies

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Common Knowledge

Canonical name
Polidori, Robert
Birthdate
1951
Gender
male
Nationality
USA
Birthplace
Canada
Occupations
Photographer

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Reviews

At first glance this book promised so much. I'd just read a biography of Saint Augustine of Hippo and was rather interested in the cities and development of North Africa in the Roman period. The photo on the dust jacket was superb and just skipping through the pages I could see that there were some seriously great photos. But I came away a bit disappointed. The book seems to be more like an archeological report on a series of individual cities. There is a paucity of information about the linkages of these lost cities to the other centres in North Africa...many of which are not "lost". It kind of lacks context from my perspective. And I looked in vain for any links with the city of Hippo that I had been reading about. It's fine as far as it goes. Nice photos, descriptions of the various lost cities that have been excavated but overall, I was disappointed.… (more)
1 vote
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booktsunami | Mar 25, 2019 |
In the 11 days following the Chernobyl catastrophe on April 26, 1986, more than 116,000 people were permanently evacuated from the area surrounding the nuclear power plant. Declared unfit for human habitation, the Zones of Exclusion includes the towns of Pripyat (established in the 1970s to house workers) and Chernobyl. In May 2001, Robert Polidori photographed what was left behind in the this dead zone. His richly detailed images move from the burned-out control room of Reactor 4, where technicians staged the experiment that caused the disaster, to the unfinished apartment complexes, ransacked schools and abandoned nurseries that remain as evidence of those who once called Pripyat home. Nearby, trucks and tanks used in the cleanup efforts rest in an auto graveyard, some covered in lead shrouds and others robbed of parts. Houseboats and barges rust in the contaminated waters of the Pripyat River. Foliage grows over the sidewalks and hides the modest homes of Chernobyl. In his large-scale photographs, Polidori captures the faded colors and desolate atmosphere of these two towns, producing haunting documents that present the reader with a rare view of not just a disastrous event, but a place and the people who lived there.… (more)
 
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petervanbeveren | 1 other review | Jan 28, 2019 |
The exhibition catalogue from a Robert Polidori retrospective at the Musee d'Art Contemporain de Montreal. Includes photos from Katrina and Chernobyl, as well as his East Village, Havana, Versailles, and Beirut work. Also included are the newer cityscapes from Amman and Varanasi. An absolutely stunning (in both the emotional and artistic sense) collection of photographs. While the catalog can't duplicate the impact of the wall-size prints of the exhibition, it's still a wonderful book to own
 
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aulsmith | Aug 16, 2009 |
Overall, it is an excellent book. The photography is clear and vivid and there is very little text (an intro at the front and photo reference at the back). The book is large, which is typical of coffee table/photography books, and has a ton of full-page, full-color photographs of the chaos in the areas surrounding the former Chernobyl nuclear power station. These areas include the city of Pripyat (a bedroom community for the plant workers), some rural villages surrounding the plant, abandoned ships in the Pripyat river, huge scrap yards containing contaminated equipment and vehicles used during the cleanup, and a few shots of the plant itself (including the control room of the damaged reactor #4). The images are dramatic and sobering, but readers must remember that the majority of the damage displayed is due to the cleanup efforts of the liquidators and the natural ravages of time. On a personal note, I think that we have little to fear from nuclear power, but the images in this book should serve as a reminder that nuclear power generation is a serious endeavor, and if not handled properly, can have disastrous effects on the environment and on civilization at large.… (more)
1 vote
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ChristopherBarnette | 1 other review | Jan 9, 2007 |

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Works
30
Members
455
Popularity
#53,951
Rating
4.2
Reviews
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ISBNs
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Favorited
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