Achieving spirituality through contemplation and solitude has long been a popular trend and the subject of many best-selling books, but today, according to Publishers Weekly, there is "a passion for Western contemplation and monasticism" that is greater than ever among readers. People are again making pilgrimages to holy sites like Jerusalem's Wailing Wall, to India, and to Greece's Mount Athos, and books on the subject of traditional religious practices-including those reviving monastic prayers and practices-are very much in demand.
That's why the timing for the publication of award-winning photographer Xavier Zimbardo's spectacular Monks of Dust couldn't be better. Mount Athos' beginnings belong to the sphere of myth, but the much-visited Greek peninsula is in fact the cradle of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, as many eastern Europeans sought religious asylum there over the centuries. Mount Athos is home to over 20 monasteries and 13 coenobiums; is a sacred repository housing still unknown sources for scholars investigating theology, philosophy, history, Byzantine and post-Byzantine art and eastern mysticism; and a boundless museum containing invaluable treasures and heirlooms of the Orthodox tradition. With a compelling introduction by world-renowned and Booker Prize-winning novelist Barry Unsworth, this beautiful, haunting book is a collection of Zimbardo's sublime interpretations of photographs of Russian monks who were in residence there prior to returning to their home country to fight against the Bolsheviks in 1917.
During a rarely granted artistic residency on the peninsula, Zimbardo discovered hundreds of photographs in an abandoned monastery. Examining them carefully through a magnifying glass, he found that the images had disintegrated so much that they were literally composed of dust; blowing on them would make them disappear completely. Zimbardo photographed a selection of images on site, never moving the pictures from where he found them. The result is an intimate collection of 75 genuine creations, astounding portraits that evoke the chasm between absence and presence, physicality and spirituality, sensuality and disintegration.
Monks of Dust captures the essence of this holy place and the monks who dwelled there. Its mysterious and contemplative nature, arresting photography, and captivating design appeals greatly to those with an interest in fine photography, portraiture, and iconography, to the enormous spirituality and religion markets, as well as to those with an interest in Greece and its history.
About
the Authors
Xavier Zimbardo is a photographer and journalist whose work has been featured
in several European and international photography publications such as Zoom,
Camera International, and Photographers International. The recipient
of several grants and prizes, including a grant from the Kodak Foundation
and several grants from the French government, he is the author of India
Holy Song (Rizzoli, fall 2000; foreword by Pulitzer Prize-winning
author Jhumpa Lahiri) and four volumes published in France:
Ladies; Xavier
Zimbardo; Vietnam: To the Country of Contrary
Roads; and The Lost Beauties.
He has had solo exhibitions of his work at museums and galleries throughout
France, including Paris, as well as in Athens, Sicily, Montreal, Milan, and
Odense. His work is on permanent display in several museums worldwide including
Paris' Bibiliothèque Nationale. He lives in Sarcelles, France.
Barry Unsworth won the Booker Prize in 1992 for Sacred Hunger. His next novel, Morality Play, was a Booker Prize-nominee and a bestseller in both the United States and Great Britain. He is the author of thirteen novels, including After Hannibal, The Hide, and Pascali's Island, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and made into a feature film. He lives in Umbria with his wife and recently held the position of Visiting Fellow at the University of Iowa.
Specifications
80 pages 9 x 11"
75 four-color and black-and-white photographs
ISBN: 0-8478-2330-x
Publication date: May 2001
Rights: World, all languages
$40.00
Rizzoli International
Publications, Inc.
300 Park Avenue South
New York, NY 10010
Distributed by St. Martin's
Press
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