Review: Second Nature

Second Nature by Guy Tillim

My rating:       Photography

This book contains two distinct sections: French Polynesia, and São Paolo. It's not entirely clear to me why these are in the same book, as there's hardly any thematic link between the two parts (aside from some trees), and the disconnect makes the book as a whole feel a bit unbalanced.

The French Polynesia section mostly comprises broad, sweeping landscape shots. There are tantalizing glimpses of human life, in between the lush vegetation and windswept coastlines, although people are never the main subjects of these images - there's enough to give me a flavour of the area, to whet my appetite and make me dream of visiting. I felt like I could sink into any one of these photographs, to walk the dirt paths and feel the rain battering my face.

Unfortunately, I found the São Paolo images less compelling. They're mostly cityscapes, and while I do enjoy urban landscape photography, I found little to set these apart from any other collection. It didn't seem to capture anything unique about Brazil; half of the photos could have come from any South American city, and the other half could have been anywhere. The shot used on the back cover really stands out, and I could identify a couple of other favourites, but I don't think I'll spend much time looking at this chapter (fortunately, it's significantly the shorter part).