The Elysian Fields

Nature's Chaos photographs by Eliot Porter and text by James Gleick

I'm on my second copy of this book: I had loaned the first to a friend back in Massachusetts, and moved away without it. I only hope he continues to enjoy his copy, or pass it on to those who will, and I bear no regrets about it.

The photographs in this book are not clear, cut, and dried representations of fractals. Instead, they are realistic, actual, examples that show how deeply accurate it is to describe anything natural in terms of a fractal equation.

From flows of lava to flows of tides to dried leaves and branching twigs to ferns arching over the forest floor, the pictures are of simple things and show the patterns that people try to order and arrange. It becomes quickly apparent that the only things with such a natural order are those which have been set into that order by the machinations of mankind; the natural order is a chaos that includes patterns deeper - simpler and complex - than anything with neat, trim edges.

The text in this - although short, scattered amongst the photographs - has also been highly influential to me, nearly as much an inspiration as the photographs it was written to accompany.