The Great Mirror is a rampant, sprawling, monster-size photo album, tidied up by digitization and database discipline.
"What? Too informal? Oh. OK. I'll start again."
The Great Mirror is a collection of photographs of cultural or humanized landscapes. The images are arranged geographically and are narratively sequenced and captioned to reflect the interests of a geographer, which--in case you're like most people and don't know or have never thought about it--is in the character of places as they are. Abandon theory, all ye who enter. Despair equally of finding places shown as their Chambers of Commerce wish them to be seen or as tour guides habitually present them, tediously Baedekeresque confections of treasures and pleasures.
All photos and captions are by Bret Wallach, a geography professor at the University of Oklahoma. The coverage inevitably reflects his own interests, chiefly Asia and especially sacred buildings and sites*, colonial relics,** and the tangible expressions of modernization***. Oh, I almost forgot: also agrarian or pre-modern agricultural landscapes, intensely beautiful but for good reason almost everywhere threatened either by modernization or abandonment.****
For a broader and more systematic introduction to the study of cultural landscapes, see his Understanding the Cultural Landscape (Guilford Press 2005, ISBN 1593851197). For the updating companion to that book, click here.
*Want some examples? Here's a little study guide, arranged in an eastward sweep across Eurasia . Visit the collections called Cordoba: the Mesquita (Spain); Papal Rome and Florence: Churches (Italy); Istanbul: Religious Architecture (Turkey); The Church of the Holy Sepulcher and The Haram (Jerusalem); The Bad Shahi Mosque and Wazir Khan's Mosque (Pakistan); Khajuraho and Varanasi (Northern India); Sanchi, Ramappa, Kanchipuram, and Ranakpur (Peninsular India); Anuradhapura, Polonnuwara, and Buduruwagala (Sri Lanka); the several collections covering Pagan (Burma), Angkor (Cambodia), and Borobudur (Indonesia); Baodingshan (China); and Nara: Horyuji (Japan) That should get you started. Don't forget your lunch.
**Examples? Try the collections for New Delhi and Calcutta (Northern India); Mumbai and Chennai (Peninsular India); Colombo and Kandy (Sri Lanka); Rangoon and Moulmein (Burma); Shanghai: The Bund (China); Manila: City Beautiful (Philippines); and Colonial Singapore. Wouldn't hurt to look at Port-of-Spain (Trinidad) or Khartoum (Sudan).
*** Examples? Try (you guessed it) Dubai (U.A.E.), but of equal or greater interest Muscat (Oman); Gurgaon and Noida (North India); New Chennai and Hyderabad Cyberabad (Peninsular India); Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia); Singapore Modern; Bangkok (Thailand); New Suzhou and Hong Kong (China); also--off the path--Soviet Tashkent (Uzbekistan).
****Examples? Let's swing the other way, starting with China (Yunnan Village: Hengdi and Dujiangyan), the Philippines (Banaue), Indonesia (Bali and Mt. Merapi), North India (Bundelkhand), South India (Traverse of the Deccan), India Themes (Irrigation), Sri Lanka (Gurugal Oya and Lamesuriagama), Pakistan (Mills of Swat and Chaprot), Oman (Jebel Akhdar and Al Ayn), and Poland (Agricultural Estates).
Site additions in 2003 include Alpine Austria, Belgium (Bruges and Brussels), Spain (Andalucia), Germany (Heidelberg and Trier), Italy (Venice and Florence), and Thailand.
Additions in 2004 include the UAE (Dubai), Oman (Muscat and Jebel Akhdar), the Eastern United States (Washington, D.C), the Western United States (Glen Rose and Las Colinas), North India (Calcutta), Peninsular India (Hyderabad, and Sanchi), Sri Lanka (Anuradhapura), Uzbekistan (Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khiva).
Additions in 2005 include Belgium (Tervuren), the Netherlands (Maastricht), Japan (Tokyo), the Philippines (Manila), the Western United States (Central Pacific Railroad and Grass Valley), Peninsular India (Udaipur), and expanded coverage of Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Mumbai, and the monuments around Agra.
Additions in 2006 include Japan (Nara and Horyuji), Pakistan (Lahore), the United States (Oklahoma City), and the UK (Liverpool, Manchester, Cambridge, and Wigan).
Additions in 2007 include Egypt (Historic Cairo, Paris on the Nile, and Skirting the Delta), China (Guangzhou, Gulangyu, Thames Town and Citta di Pujiang), Greece, UAE (expanded coverage of Dubai), Yemen (Sana'a, Aden, and Shibam), and North India (Lucknow , Cuttack, Bhubaneshwar, Konarak, Puri, Chandigarh, and expanded coverage of Shimla).
Additions in 2008 include expanded coverage of Egypt (Luxor Temple, Karnak, Medinat Hapu, the Ramesseum, Temple of Hatshepsut, and five tombs in the Theban Necropolis), Jordan (Jerash), and Dallas (Texas, Western U.S.).
