Seas of Glass and Barriers of Substance: A Global Survey of Windows and Portals

This edition follows a diverse global survey of windows and portal elements featuring architectural, contextual and symbolic openings and exits. The images showcase random, diverse and unique perspectives. They are positioned in context from detailed buildings and accompanying exterior ornamentation.

The selection represents a visual diary of international metaphors through the camera lens. Shadow, light and distortion may alter familiar structures into artistic and abstract compositions. Over 475 images elude simplistic explanation offering alternative views punctuated by aesthetic continuity.

The concept of a window or portal is examined without commentary. This book is a visual palette of the apparently evident and the interpreted.

One views a window that may penetrate clarity or by contrast a mirrored reflection offering reflective insight. One views a portal as an implied inviting entrance or a barrier emphatically preventive assimilation. The dualities in potential meaning are left to the viewer’s interpretation.