Book review: Striking Balance by Dinesh Boaz

blog

Book review: Striking Balance by Dinesh Boaz

April 7th, 2019 by Cary Benbow

In The Wild – Othonoi, Greece

The coffee-table quality book Striking Balance by Dinesh Boaz contains striking, saturated, color images of our world as seen from above. Boaz creates these aerial images in beautiful places around the globe: Hawaii, California, Arizona, Utah, Greece, Sri Lanka, New York City, and Florida.

Photographs from Striking Balance have been featured in Conde Nast online, and shown in scenes of a glam NYC apartment make-over in Martha Stewart online. The visual impact of Boaz’s photos lend themselves easily to decorating with large colorful photographs that add vibrant visual punch, or to serve as an escape to imagine oneself hovering above a Hawaiian beach. Boaz’s book introduction catchline of “Manifestations of the power of water, wind and time” even feels epic.

While doing some research to learn more about the book and the photographer, I read a feature on Boaz’s work. According to a certain camera manufacturer website, which states he is a compensated professional photographer for them, Boaz makes comments about his creative process. I feel I was better off not knowing some of the lucky happenstance events that came about to create these images. The process involved simply trying a couple different settings on the camera, or deciding to ‘slow down’ instead of selecting burst mode for capturing the images on a certain trip. The decision to turn around and ‘get lucky’ with a shot behind the helicopter was especially notable. The un-pedantic process and verbose self-centered accolades detracted from my initial reaction of genuine interest and liking the book. I guess I’d rather not know how the sausage is made; I’ll just enjoy the snack.

All in all, I can’t deny the impact these images make. The photographs of beaches, mountains, and even tennis courts at night lend us a viewpoint many of us will never have in person. I can appreciate his images of patterns and rhythms made apparent from an aerial view. I imagine it is thrilling to lean out of an open cockpit to capture scenes such as these. So perhaps it is best to read Boaz’s own words, as he describes his project in this way: “The feeling of the works I have shot between 2016 – 2018 is to show that people, water, rocks, and metal elements can work together when viewed from above. The photos sometimes show chaos and disruption, while some show serenity and bliss – in the end, no matter what the subject portrayed – there is a unifying beauty in shapes, emotion, and stillness. The balance of these diametric forces is what is to be experienced when viewing the works.”

Layers in Movement – Moab, Utah

Blue Dream – Calypso Cave, Othonoi, Greece

Lucky In Love – West Side Highway, New York

Warriors on Water – Banzai Pipeline, Hawaii

Desert Isle – Kane’ohe Bay, Hawaii

Burners – South Beach, Florida

Striking Balance by Dinesh Boaz
Designed by Adam Osadon, printed by Edition One Printing
Hardcover, 78 pages
Limited 1st edition (2018)
ISBN-10: 1532397267

To learn more about Striking Balance or see more images by Dinesh Boaz, visit his website. All images shown are © Dinesh Boaz

About Cary Benbow

Photographer, Writer, Publisher of Wobneb Magazine

View all posts by Cary Benbow →

Location: Online Type: Book Review

blog