The Playbook

For more than thirty years, aerial photographer Alex S. MacLean has portrayed the history and evolution of the American land, from great desert spaces to agricultural patterns to city grids. A trained architect who is closely involved in landscape heritage protection issues, MacLean has set out to create a series of pictures that record the universal history of town and countryside, and raise the issue of the landscape's future. Here he turns his camera on the colorful, exhilarating patterns created by Americans at play, and the lasting marks they leave behind. From the beauty of perfectly symmetric sports stadiums to the spaghetti-like tangles of theme parks to picnickers on a stretch of splendid beach, he illuminates how we inhabit the land and the potential for modern planning to create spectacular environments. 80 color illustrations.