White Star Bonsai

This is a beautiful and fascinating book. I find myself poring over the pages, comparing photographs of the same tree in different stages, and marveling at the differences in proportion between the sizes of bonsais and naturally developing trees of the same type. Sadly, the author passed away in March 2015, so we won't be able to enjoy any more of Ms. Botticelli's masterpieces.

While the photography is excellent and in most cases shows the actual trees to advantage I find the stark white background annoying and presents the trees without a natural context. The sudden demarcation between tree and brilliant white is very un-natural. The writer rightly says in the text how a bonsai artist strives to create a miniature of the full size natural grown tree, for me the photos need to merge into a background to accomplish this. If the book was a "how to" publication the presentation employed might be useful, but it is not, it is a photographic presentation of beautiful, mature bonsai trees that are a credit to the artists who created and maintain them.The text consists of a brief series of comments one for each tree and does not seem to set out to be very informative and it is somewhat repetitive.

Beautiful archive of outstanding bonsai specimens...

Nice one