Gathering Light

All photographs are to some extent about light. The eighty-five stunning color photographs in this book are a masterful exploration not only of the light falling on objects or filling spaces but of the very act of seeing. Whether he is photographing in a museum storage room in Washington, D.C., or a shrine in Myanmar, Richard Ross has an uncanny ability to distill the space and the moment, whether it is profane or sacred, into its essence. These photographs are deceptively simple in their subtle examination of the world as revealed in a single burst of light. "There are fewer kinds of light in the world than there are places and times. The same lights repeat themselves across oceans and decades. Ross's photographs teach us the language of light."Alain de Button, author of How Proust Can Change Your Life. "I have seen rather too much 'creativity' in photographs lately, and it makes me appreciate the sobriety, skill, and--yes--imagination I find in these photographs by Richard Ross. He allows us to discover not just his photographs but the places, thoughts, and experiences they encompass with such extraordinary, if self-effacing technique."--Mark Haworth-Booth, Victoria and Albert Museum