The Telling Image: Shapes of Changing Times

Next Generation Indie Book Awards, Best Non Fiction 2019
National Indie Excellence Award Winner
Nautilus Book Awards, Gold
#1 Amazon Best Seller in Architecture History & Periods
Amazon Best Seller in Art Subjects & Themes

 

Seeing the World Through Shape
How do humans make sense of the world? In answer to this timeless question, award winning documentary filmmaker, Lois Farfel Stark, takes the reader on a remarkable journey from tribal ceremonies in Liberia and the pyramids in Egypt, to the gravity-defying architecture of modern China. Drawing on her experience as a global explorer, Stark unveils a crucial, hidden key to understanding the universe: Shape itself.

The Telling Image is a stunning synthesis of civilization's changing mindsets, a brilliantly original perspective urging you to re-envision history not as a story of kings and wars but through the lens of shape. In this sweeping tour through time, Stark takes us from migratory humans, who imitated a web in round-thatched huts and stone circles, to the urban ladder of pyramids and skyscrapers, organized by hierarchy and measurements, to today's world of interconnected networks. 

In The Telling Image Stark reveals how buildings, behaviors, and beliefs reflect humans' search for pattern and meaning. We can read the past and glimpse the future by watching when shapes shift. Stark's beautifully illustrated book asks of all its readers: See what you think.

 

Lois Farfel Stark is an Emmy Award-winning producer, documentary filmmaker, and author. During her distinguished career she produced and wrote documentaries on architecture, medical research, globalization, artists, and social issues. With NBC News, she covered Abu Dhabi's catapult to the 20th century, the British withdrawal from the Persian Gulf, Cuba ten years after their revolution, the Israeli Air Force in the Six Day War, Northern Ireland during its time of religious conflict, and Liberia's social split.

Stark is the recipient of an Emmy, two CINE Gold awards, two Gold Awards from The International Film Festival of the Americas, and the American Bar Association Silver Gavel Award. She has served as a trustee for institutions in education, health, the arts, and public service, including Sarah Lawrence College, her alma mater.  She lives in Houston, Texas.