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Book Review: Moon Viewing: Megaliths By Moonlight by Barbara Yoshida
Grandson Menhir—Moonlight, Grandson, Switzerland • 2005
When I was a kid and watched 2001: A Space Oddessey for the first time it rocked me to my core. I was too young to fully understand what I was watching but the imagery that Kubrick crafted for the film would never leave me. We all remember the monolith. The big black stoic chunk of obsidian that appears throughout the film is forever entrenched in our culture’s pop sensibility brain. Moon Viewing evokes the same feeling but deeper, more primal. Looking at these photos of these natural structures that are actually found on this planet, not some work of fiction, makes me gaze in wonder like the anthropomorphized apes of 2001.
Zoraz Kar—Moonlight, Sisian, Armenia • 2009
Barbara Yoshida undertook a vast quest to find these Megaliths across the world and shoot them under the cover of moonlight. Moonlight brings about a different sense to our surroundings and often we think that under the cover of darkness is where nightmares dwell. Flip your perspective and think about how things come alive at night. These megaliths speak to the viewer with an unbridled passion that has existed before the written word. These stones have seen more history than ever recorded and will stand the test of time for ages to come. Sure, we may have erected the stones and mankind felt the need to express their emotions and beliefs by hoisting them up but truly who had the spiritual power to raise them up? Was it the stones themselves yearning to be back in the cosmos or was is us playing like we knew what a God was?
Wassu Stones—Moonlight, Wassu, The Gambia • 2010
This book is a gorgeous account of these beings that populate a multitude of locations on the Earth. These stones are in Europe, Africa, even Armenia and Israel. They all have one thing in common; they were witness to man attempting to find its identity. The long exposures combined with the ancient night sky bring these black and white photos to life like distant memories from our human unconscious. I suggest you pick this book up, pour yourself a glass of your favorite beverage, put on some Pallbearer, and just enjoy the soft poetry created by Barbara Yoshida.
Moon Viewing: Megaliths By Moonlight
by Barbara Yoshida
Marquand Books, Inc.
Click for more info and to purchase the book
Location: Online Type: Book Review
5 responses to “Book Review: Moon Viewing: Megaliths By Moonlight by Barbara Yoshida”
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Thanks so much, Richard, for this fantastic review! I love your reference to the film, 2001: A Space Odyssey — I, too, was blown away by that film. And I love the fact that you talk about deep, primal feelings. My work is all about experiencing and feeling — emotions, intuition, poetry and romance (in the larger sense of the word). Yours is perhaps the freshest and best written piece so far about this book — thank you! My best, barbara
Beautiful work. Timeless.
“they were witness to man attempting to find its identity.” — indeed.
Thanks for getting the word out about this book.
Hey , Barbara! I truly enjoyed the book and thank you very much for the kind words about my review. I am very eager to see what you have in store for the future.
All the best,
Rich
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