‘Beautiful Whale’ Book Review

Editor's Picks, Featured Article
on May 12, 2013
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Beautiful Whale
By Bryant Austin
Hardcover, 124 pages ($50 / Abrams)

The author, who produces hi-resolution, life-size images of whales, from close-ups of eyes and scars to full-body portraits, presents this amazing collection of his work—considerably scaled down here, of course, but nonetheless stunningly impressive still in this oversized 15” x 12” hardbound edition—in a display that reveals the majesty of his subjects, the mastery of his craft, and the importance of protecting and preserving one of the planet’s most social, most ancient and most endangered mammals. Writes oceanographer and marine conservation advocate Sylvia Earle in the book’s opening essay, “While we long to find evidence of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, we have mercilessly waged war on intelligent beings who have developed in parallel with humankind on the same blue speck.”