400 Years of Travel Diaries: The Art of Sketching

Caught between travel guides and artists' books, the travel diary has swung between a journalistic documentary style and visual expression. It is a literary and artistic genre that is composite and plural, heterogeneous and subjective. This book illustrates the great scientific and journalistic adventures in history, from the Egyptian campaign to the war in Iraq, while describing the artistic techniques and contemporary trends in travel sketchbooks. It also explores more intimate territories, capturing the essence of our world to preserving the remembrances. Between text and image, this stunning collection travels through the centuries revealing the most beautiful pages of a very human adventure. The book ends with a complete overview of the different genres (from the educational trip to reportage) and types of travel diaries (from sketchbooks to audiovisual works), as well as the very diverse techniques used by different artists (from pencil work to the graphic arts and mixed techniques). As memories of other places, travel notebooks chronicle the experience of getting to know the place we visit and ourselves. They have been companions of artists from Durer to Philip Delord, going through the orientalists and explorers. AUTHOR: Pascale Argod, who holds a PhD in information and communication sciences, is lecturer at the Bordeaux University. As member of a research group on cultural and visual studies, she does research on travel sketchbooks and travel diaries and holds a blog on the topic. SELLING POINTS: . Between text and image, this stunning collection illustrates the great scientific and journalistic adventures in history up to present. . The author is specialised in travel sketchbooks and holds a blog on the topic. . The art of the pioneer scientific explorers. . This book illustrates the great scientific and journalistic adventures in history. . Travel diaries swing between a journalistic documentary style and visual expression.