More Than Human

This is a startling book of animal photography. Not only are the large format pages a remarkable showcase for the pictures, but the photos themselves are unlike most animal shots. Whether his subject is a grizzly bear, a beetle, or bats, Flach shows them in studio style. Dare I say it? It's as if each animal walked in for its senior photo. The backgrounds are undistracting, the lighting is excellent, the clarity is crisp, and the focus is unusually direct and straight-on. There are several consecutive pages of lions and tigers staring out the page, as if making eye-contact. And there's plenty of other intriguing views of chimpanzees, jellyfish, an axolatl, and the fine hairs of a sea lion. This is an excellent collection.

The photos in this collection are breathtaking. I paged through once, just to look at everything, then went through slowly and read the long intro and all of the accompanying text. Although I would rate this 5 stars just for being a fabulous photo collection, the text enhanced the overall effect, and I do recommend reading it.

Side note: this book is enormous and it weighs 4,000 pounds. Seriously, you can't pick it up one-handed. The size, though, is what gives the final oomph to the photos, so I wouldn't want it any other way.