Gone: A Photographic Plea for Preservation

Gone: A Photographic Plea for Preservation is a selection of photographs of antebellum structures which in some way, some as limited as columns, survived the American Civil War but have since fallen into disrepair. The photographs are presented in tandem with the short story, " Pillar of Fire" by Shelby Foote. While the story is a nice read on its own, the photographs selected for each page of the text makes it seem like the story was telling the history of these particular structures, even though the story was written nearly 50 years prior. The photographs on their own are stunning and worth looking through for anyone interested in antebellum architecture. My biggest wish would have been more captioning of the photographs like the photographer's notes, as the history and battle scars of these structures is fascinating in their own right.

The story was good, but I wouldn't consider it great, though it might have been the layout of the book may have been throwing me some loops. Each page had a large phogoraph with a small caption on its facing page, with a small photo and large quote or note on the page with the story, so it took some bouncing around. But the pairing with the photographs really made this a 4 star book, and has a message I really support.