Utopia/Dystopia - Hardcover

Geoffrey James has been a photographer since 1970. He has solo exhibitions around the world, and his work has appeared in many books, including, Running Fence, Toronto, and Place. He has received many awards, and in 2002 won both the Roloff Beny Award for photography and the Gershon Iskowitz Prize for lifetime achievement in the visual arts. Born in Wales and educated at Oxford, he lives in Toronto.

Lori Pauli, assistant curator of photographs at the National Gallery of Canada, is the author of Manufactured Landscapes: The Photographs of Edward Burtynsky.

Stephen Bann is a Professor of Art History at the University of Bristol and the author of numerous books and articles including Parallel Lines: Printmakers, Painters and Photographers in Nineteenth-Century France.

Britt Salvesen, curator at the University of Arizona's Center for Creative Photography, is the author of Harry Callahan: The Photographer at Work.

"Both show and catalogue -- James's images stand up well on the page -- march us steadfastly past the wide range of subjects that interest the 66-year-old, Welsh-born, mostly self-taught photographer...James's work has long fit well within the framework of photographic history. Indeed, there's much to be admired in earlier panoramas of Italian gardens and French landscapes in Utopia/Dystopia." (Toronto Star)

"A thoughtful illustrated celebration of the artist's outstanding accomplishment...In these images, and elsewhere in his work, Geoffrey James pinpoints with strong artistic force the fault-lines and fissures in the architectural history of our time." (Globe & Mail)

"James has made a study of the ways in which men would control both nature and the built environment, and the ways in which both nature and human neglect eventually overwhelm these ambitions. Increasingly, if his photos seem beautiful it is despite, not because, of their subjects...James has made a remarkably sure and swift progression, uncovering his true subject and defining his artistic attitude, deciding for himself and his viewer just exactly what role should be played by a stack of cheap plastic rates plunked down in front of a historic facade." (Globe & Mail)

"Despite the absence of people, a sense of human habitation is powerfully evoked. James' subject has always been the relationship between landscape and civilization, nature and humanity. This visually sumptuous volume is worthy of one of the country's most significant contemporary photographic artists." (Waterloo Region Record)

"[Utopia/Dystopia] provides an illustrated chronology of James' career, which adds depth to the book, giving us a glimpse of his maturation as a photographer...For photography buffs, this tabletop book is a nice addition to one's collection, particularly, as a study in black and white." (Regina Leader-Post)