Author: Bruce Sharky

ISBN: 978-1-7368612-6-4

About the Book: The subject of this book is shadows, shadows in outdoor spaces. The author explores how shadows contribute to plant texture, and then many less considered aspects of shadows such as how the experiential impact shadows affect our visual and cognitive experience of space. The work draws from many sources, foremost from the treatise on shadows by Leonardo da Vinci as well as art theory, cinematography, and psychology. Discussion surveys how shadows can advance a narrative in space, drawing from art theory and cinema. Shadows, like music, are used to contribute to a mood and dramatic scenes especially in art-noire cinema. The text is richly supported by over one-hundred color images taken of projects visited in a wide range of countries by the author. 

About the Author: My interests in landscape architecture are diverse and have evolved over the years through work in varied locations as teacher and practitioner. I had a landscape practice with a classmate in Anchorage, AK for 15 years. During my 30 years teaching at Louisiana State University, travel in the US and internationally has been an important aspect of many of my activities at LSU including leading summer and semester abroad programs to Mexico, the Netherlands, Portugal, and China. I have been twice a recipient of Fulbright Fellowships, one to Mexico and a second in Portugal. I teach graduate and upper-level undergraduate studio. I also teach technology courses involving grading, materials, and detailing in construction. Following my graduation with a BLA at the University of California, Berkeley I set out from a bus station in Oakland, CA with a classmate—both with backpacks, passports, cameras, and no cellphone or credit card—on an adventure to South America by land (bus and a few train segments). We were gone about a year finding work along the way. Returning to the US with my wife from Costa Rica, I worked as park planner for the City of Los Angeles. After, I worked for a private landscape architecture firm in Winnipeg, Canada. I returned to UC Berkeley to earn a master’s degree in landscape architecture. Recently I hiked from Bayonne, France over the Pyrenees Mountains into Spain on the Camino to Santiago de Compostela with my wife and two CA-Berkeley classmates. Previously I hiked the last 125 miles of the same Camino to Santiago with my wife and our youngest daughter. I enjoy sketching, especially sketching from nature with watercolors. I previously published three books one on professional practice, and the others on grading and introduction to landscape architecture. With this current book, It seems I have always been pursuing shadows.