Magnum Landscape

Unlike portraits, most modern landscape photography doesn't reach out and grab you. That's because many modern landscapes (tourist brochures aside) are really rather bleak — parking lots, for example, and garbage dumps. Both, along with the odd tableau of sheep ambling down a Welsh sidewalk, find a showcase in these not-immediately appealing snaps by members of the Magnum Landscape photo agency. The pictures' very barrenness, however, turns out to be their strength: By avoiding the slick, glistening surface of things, zooming right in on the struggle between man and nature, they've secured valuable territory. Foreword by Ian Jeffrey. B+