Autrefois, Maison Privee
Editorial Reviews Book Description Photographer Bill Burke has taken annual trips to Indochina ever since he first traveled to Asia in 1982. Although he usually photographed the people, Burke became aware of how the architecture absorbed as much as reflected the region's history. Transfixed by buildings like the municipal offices built by the French in the 1860s, the vaulted railroad stations and post offices of the 1930s, and the art-deco fantasy cinemas of the 1960s, Burke saw the region as an architectural museum, rotting in the humidity and untouched by economic ambition, and began to trace the cultural changes in the area through its architecture. In Autrefois, Maison Privee - the title means "once a private house," and refers to prevalent reappropriation of once private houses for municipal and government uses - Burke captures the dramatic history of the area, from the influence of French colonialism through the rise of communism and the devastating effects of the Vietnam War, to the repopulation of Cambodia after the fall of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rough and the opening of the area to capitalism. Burke's first entree into Indochina occurred during the period of Soviet control, a period of recovery that allowed for the the current explosion of capitalism, which has already begun to devaste an architectural heritage that was well preserved in the deep freez of socialism. What the B-52s and tank didn't destroy during the decades of war, developers from neighboring countries are busily replacing About the Author Bill Burke was born in 1943 and received both his BFA and MFA in Photography from the Rhode Island School of Design. He has exhibited in solo and gropu exhibitions around the world, and his workds are in the collections of the International Center of Photography, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the smithsonian Institution of American Art, Washington, D.C.; the Museum Of Fine Arts, Boston; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and the Center of Creative Photography, Tucson; among others. Burke has received numerous honors, including five National Endowment for the Arts grants, and the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. Burke lives in Dorchester, Massachusetts; Bernard Fall (Essay) was a French journalist and historian. He died in 1967; Prince Sirik Matak (Letter), Sihanouk's brother and Prime Minister of Cambodia from 1970-1975, was executed in 1975 by the Khmer Rouge. The letter published here was written to John Gunther Dea, U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia, who urged the Prince to leave his country as the U.S. was pulling out, leaving it to the Khmer Rouge, intent on "liberating" the capitol. The Prince declined, knowing he would be killed with his family by day's end.
Autrefois, Maison Privee,Bill Burke,Bernard Fall,Prince Sirik Matak,powerHouse Books,1576871800,20th century,Architectural & Industrial,Architectural photography,Architecture,Cambodia,Collections, Catalogs, Exhibitions,General,History,History - General,International Architecture - General,Photography Of Specific Subjects,Pictorial works,Vernacular Architecture
Nice Books:
Recommended Books