Greece: Land of Light

A book by Barry Brukoff and Nicholas Gage

Now for the first time in paperback, this classic provides a dramatic visual and written introduction to the land, people, culture, and history of Greece. Greece is a legendary destination, and anyone who has once fallen under its spell dreams of returning again and again.

GREECE: Land of Light captures the essence of Greece- its striking sea and landscape, its people, its culture and history, and its ancient monuments. In the stark light of the Greek sun, colors become so pure and clear that they are almost audible.

From the tip of the Peloponnese to the remote mountain villages of the far north to the islands of the Aegean, Brukoff’s brilliant color images and Gage’s evocative words delineate the heart of Greece. Included are the great classical ruins, Byzantine monasteries, colorful fishing villages, chairs at outdoor tavernas, octopus drying in the sun like laundry, and the ubiquitous cats-the vivid details that each traveler takes home as a memory. Gage’s insightful essays on the turbulent history of Greece, its myths and beliefs, life in the villages, the age-old wisdom and spirit of the Greek people, and above all, ‘Greece’s unearthly, spiritual, almost holy light’ are a passionate tribute to an extraordinary country.

Editorial Reviews

San Francisco Chronicle
David Armstrong
Sunday, July 11, 2004

A leading contender for the gold in the coffee-table book category is “Greece: Land of Light,” with text by Nicholas Gage and photographs by Barry Brukoff (Bulfinch Press, 160 pages, $24.95).

Brukoff offers up 150 color photos, taken all around Greece. Some show familiar views such as Athens’ haunting Parthenon, but mostly Brukoff pictures Greece’s impossibly beautiful Aegean islands and the rugged, mountainous core of the Greek mainland. He captures the faces of villagers, the stony banks of ravines, gently domed Byzantine churches and gnarly groves of olive trees. And he shoots city and countryside in the famous Greek light of this book’s title.

Visitors have rhapsodized for generations about the light in Greece, Brukoff’s camera shows with splendid clarity the nearly white light of Greece, the sharp angularity of sun and shadow on whitewashed walls. His visual acuity is the prime virtue of this smartly produced, oversized trade paperback.

Photo District News

Barry Brukoff has published three travel books, all of them extraordinary;The Enigma of and now, Stonehenge; Morocco and now, Greece: Land of Light. In this, he has done something that many want to do and believe they can, but at which very few actually succeed: he has made his own unique photographs of a well-traveled, accessible place, and he has found a publisher interested in sharing them with the book buying world.

Anyone with a personal fantasy of life on a Greek island – and I’m definitely one of that tribe – will respond instantly and deeply to Brukoff’s images. He knows what gets us in the gut: old stones at dusk; tan-colored ruins on a sandy looking cliff above the sea: the wall of a mottled red painted Church; the dappled shade produced by grapevines on a trellis overhead; a pristinely whitewashed wall in the bright sun, limning the outline of a black, black cat. In each case, Brukoff gives us the images we expect; he is wonderfully talented, however, at making sure they transcend cliché.

SFGATE.COM: Olympic Flame Sheds New Light On Greece
David Armstrong
Sunday, July 11, 2004

There is a slew of new books about Greece and Athens muscling their way onto bookshelves.

A leading contender for the Gold in the coffee table book category is “Greece: Land of Light” with text by Nicholas Gage and photographs by Barry Brukoff (Bulfinch Press, 160 pages, $24.95.

Brukoff offers up 150 color photographs taken all around Greece. Brukoff pictures Greece’s impossibly beautiful Aegean Islands and the rugged, mountainous core of the Greek mainland. He captures the faces of villagers, the stony banks of ravines, gently domed Byzantine churches and gnarly groves of olive trees. And he shoots city and countryside in the famous Greek light of this book’s title. Brukoff’s camera shows with splendid clarity the nearly white light of Greece, the sharp angularity of sun and shadow on whitewashed walls. His visual acuity is the prime virtue of this smartly produced volume.

The Greek Star
By Diane Lymberopoulos

Greece, Land of Light is a marvelous record of this enchanting land, portraying the essence of Greece – it’s striking sea and landscape; its people, its culture and history and its ancient monuments. From the tip of the hell upon the sea to the remote mountain villages of the far North to the islands of the Aegean, Brukoff’s brilliant color images and Gage’s evocative words capture the heart of Greece. It is a treasure for all wishing to reacquaint themselves with the landscape of this sun drenched country or for someone who is just becoming aware of Greece’s mystique.

Odyssey Magazine Jan/Feb 1999
By Michael Howard

Travelers, writers, and artists through the centuries has struggled to capture and articulate the remarkable way in which the Greek countryside and its peoples are illuminated and nourished by the light that washes the land. That light has inspired photographer Barry Brook off for over 20 years, and inspiration he has wrought into a finely produced volume entitled Greece Land of Light published by Bulfinch Press.

His background as a painter and sculptor has given him an ally for the way light falls on and helps to describe three dimensional objects and alter perception. “in Greece, the light is something that is always there”, he says. “The light is apparent but it’s not the subject: it’s the presence of it that appeals. That quality is amazing.” The unbearable being-ness of light, perhaps.

Brukoff approached Gage, the renowned author of “Eleni”. “Who better to write about Greece than Nicholas Gage?” Brukoff muses.

I was flattered that he sought me out, but I had just published a book about Greece, (Hellas), and didn’t want to do another – particularly to be honest, one that was going to be more pictures than text.” Gage says. But when I started looking at the slides, I was spellbound. They were so striking, so beautiful, so evocative of all the sites and places I’d seen in all the times I had been in Greece, so true to the emotions I felt for the country that I just couldn’t say no this time. I showed the pictures to my wife Joan and her reaction was unequivocal: “you’ve got to do the book!

Brukoff’s images resonate more deeply with the viewer: they practically radiate peace.

The Hellenic Journal
By Mavis Manus

Greece, land of light is a striking record of the essence of Greece – its sea and landscape, its people, its culture, history and ancient monuments…..Barry Brukoff’s brilliant color images – with text by Nicholas Gage, author of Eleni – delineate the heart of Greece…..”Greece’s unearthly spiritual almost holy light” which Barry Brukoff magically reproduces, is a passionate tribute to the country.

Chicago Tribune
May 16, 2004

Seldom is there such harmony between words and pictures as photographer Barry Brukoff and writer Nicholas Gage achieve in Greece; Land of Light. ……….Brukoff’s lens lingers on empty chairs, vacant stairways, goat herds and Grecian faces, all with equal tenderness……Together Brukoff and Gage give us a Greece of whitewashed villages, shade-dappled lanes, drowsy harbors and cliff top monasteries where the sun shines ever golden

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