The Imperfect Atlas by Peter Funch. Published by TBW Books.
This past summer my family and I went to Alaska for vacation. One of the life-changing encounters I had was the experience of taking long, introspective walks over lingering nature paths to find the unmatched, humbling, magnificence of the glaciers. However, the experience was bittersweet as we witnessed the glaciers crying, melting, disappearing.
When I first learned about Peter Funch’s new book, The Imperfect Atlas, a childlike excitement came over me in anticipation of the book, with some of the visual clues that the publisher displayed on the website. I started to think about my memory of the look of the 1970s color television screens. I contemplated the tragedy of global warming and how Funch communicates this profound issue in a way that utilizes an intelligence that is precise, inventive, playful, scientific, complex, surprising, telling and very much human.
Once in the hand, all desires and expectations are exceeded, in a format that befits and expands Peter Funch’s evolving vision and quest.
Jeff Mermelstein, the son of Holocaust survivors, was born in 1957 in New Brunswick, New Jersey and currently lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife and son. A photographer since his teenage years , he is the author of five books: Sidewalk, Dewi Lewis, 1999, No Title Here, powerHouse , 1993, Twirl / Run, powerHouse, 2009, and most recently Arena, TBW , 2019 and Hardened, Morel, 2019. Mermelstein has been on the teaching faculty of ICP in New York since 1987.