“The remarkable juxtaposition of old and new photographs, beautifully reproduced, provides a sense of just how much our cities may, or may not, change through time.”—American History
“An elegant volume.”—Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Klett’s study, called rephotography, is a testament to urban resiliency in the face of tragic loss.”—Parade
“After the Ruins is both a return to and a completion of this artist’s deliberate widening of his own temporal horizons. . . . The past is plunged into the present, setting memory adrift like a yellowed ghost, wandering through the public square in the midday sun.”—Photo-Eye
“In the handsome companion book to an acclaimed exhibit at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, photographer Mark Klett contrasts the city’s current urban landscape with images taken after the earthshaking tragedy a century ago.”—Entertainment Weekly
“The centennial of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake . . . has triggered the publication of a spate of books on the topic. This is one of the best of the bunch.”—Palo Alto Weekly
“A dramatic comparison of the city’s tragic past as seen next to today’s modern advances and architecture. This book is a riveting lesson about the fury of Mother Nature and power of human courage.”—Shutterbug
“This impressive volume is a work of art, scholarship, and spirit. And, in a way, it’s also about traveling through time. . . . For anyone who has ever walked this city, this book will be a visual tour of a city reborn.”—Newsday
“It’s as if by looking - almost listening - to these cunningly paired photographs closely enough, we could witness the earthquake in some timeless zone of simultaneity.—San Francisco Chronicle
“Klett exposes not just a nearly physical erasure—in which contemporary San Francisco has literally superimposed itself on the phantom city of 1906—but also the idea that the past itself is little more than an illusion.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review
“Klett’s work is a powerful reminder of the adage that the only constant is change.”—San Francisco Magazine
“A remarkable album of images that show not only the devastation the city suffered, but the various ways in which it has recovered and risen from the rubble. . . . [An] informative and oddly addictive book.”—Associated Press
"The catalog consists of 48 pairs of beautifully printed photographs, along with maps, an interview with Klett by Karin Breuer, and well-written essays by Fradkin and Solnit (all illustrated). . . . Highly recommended."—CHOICE
“Klett's book will be of value on many levels: it is presented as a work of art, which it is, but will appeal to artists, photographers, historians, seismologists and engineers alike.”—Times Higher Education
“The remarkable juxtaposition of old and new photographs, beautifully reproduced, provides a sense of just how much our cities may, or may not, change through time.”—American History
“An elegant volume.”—Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Klett’s study, called rephotography, is a testament to urban resiliency in the face of tragic loss.”—Parade
“After the Ruins is both a return to and a completion of this artist’s deliberate widening of his own temporal horizons. . . . The past is plunged into the present, setting memory adrift like a yellowed ghost, wandering through the public square in the midday sun.”—Photo-Eye
“In the handsome companion book to an acclaimed exhibit at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, photographer Mark Klett contrasts the city’s current urban landscape with images taken after the earthshaking tragedy a century ago.”—Entertainment Weekly
“The centennial of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake . . . has triggered the publication of a spate of books on the topic. This is one of the best of the bunch.”—Palo Alto Weekly
“A dramatic comparison of the city’s tragic past as seen next to today’s modern advances and architecture. This book is a riveting lesson about the fury of Mother Nature and power of human courage.”—Shutterbug
“This impressive volume is a work of art, scholarship, and spirit. And, in a way, it’s also about traveling through time. . . . For anyone who has ever walked this city, this book will be a visual tour of a city reborn.”—Newsday
"
After the Ruins is a remarkable achievement. A moving commemoration of a tragic centennial; the residual landscapes of San Francisco that beckon from these words and pictures remind us of history’s power and its proximity. Klett, Fradkin, and Solnit are brilliant guides through San Francisco landscapes then and now.”—William Deverell, Director, Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.”
“There has never been a book on this subject with these perspectives and this depth. The combination of Fradkin’s solid historical research with Solnit’s illuminating historical insight combined with Klett’s extensive rephotography breaks new ground.”—Robert Dawson, photographer of
Farewell Promised Land: Waking from the California Dream“
After the Ruins is, in some ways, a century in the making. It is well worth the wait: Klett and his colleagues continue to push the meaning, significance, and power of rephotography. In this poignant commemoration of urban tragedy, they have offered us a meditation on history, imagery, and landscape.”—Jennifer A. Watts, Curator of Photographs, The Huntington Library