The Great Mirror
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The Great Mirror is a collection of over 10,000 photographs of cultural or humanized landscapes.
Arranged geographically and captioned, all the photos and captions are by Bret Wallach, a geography professor at the University of Oklahoma. The photographs inevitably reflects his own regional and topical interests, among them sacred buildings and sites*, colonial relics,** the tangible expressions of modernization***, and agrarian or pre-modern agricultural landscapes****.
*For example, visit the collections called Cordoba: the Mesquita (Spain); Papal Rome and Florence: Churches (Italy); Istanbul: Religious Architecture (Turkey); The Church of the Holy Sepulcher and The Haram (Jerusalem); The Bad Shahi Mosque and Wazir Khan's Mosque (Pakistan); Khajuraho and Varanasi (Northern India); Ellora, Sanchi, Sanchi, Hampi, Ramappa, Kanchipuram, and Ranakpur (Peninsular India); Anuradhapura, Polonnuwara, and Buduruwagala (Sri Lanka); the several collections covering Pagan (Burma), Angkor (Cambodia), and Borobudur (Indonesia); Baodingshan and Foguangsi (China); and Nara: Horyuji (Japan)
**For the British in Asia, try the folders for New Delhi, Calcutta, Shimla, and Naini Tal (Northern India); Mumbai and Chennai (Peninsular India); Colombo and Kandy (Sri Lanka); Rangoon and Moulmein (Burma), and Singapore. For the British in Africa, try Khartoum (Sudan), Nairobi (Kenya), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), and Johannesburg (S. Africa). For the Portuguese, try Macao (China), Bassein, Goa, and Diu (Peninsular India), and Ihla de Mozambique (Mozambique). For Germany, see Bagamoyo (Tanzania) and Swakopmund (Namibia). For Europeans in China, see Shanghai: The Bund , Gulangyu, and Shantou. For American colonialism, see Manila: City Beautiful (Philippines).
***Try Dessau and the Bauhaus (Germany), Dubai (U.A.E.), Muscat (Oman); Chandigarh, Gurgaon, and Noida (North India); New Chennai and Hyderabad Cyberabad (Peninsular India); Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia); Singapore, Bangkok (Thailand); New Suzhou and Hong Kong (China); also Soviet Tashkent (Uzbekistan).
****Try Yunnan Village: Hengdi (China), as well as nearby Dujiangyan, Banaue (Philippines), Mt. Merapi and Bali (Indonesia), Bundelkhand (North India), Traverse of the Deccan (South India), Gurugal Oya and Lamesuriagama (Sri Lanka), Chaprot and Mills of Swat (Pakistan, and Jebel Akhdar and Al Ayn (Oman).
Site additions in 2003 include Alpine Austria, Belgium (Bruges and Brussels), Spain (Andalucia), Germany (Heidelberg and Trier), Italy (Venice and Florence), and Thailand.
Additions in 2004 include the UAE (Dubai), Oman (Muscat and Jebel Akhdar), the Eastern United States (Washington, D.C), the Western United States (Glen Rose and Las Colinas), North India (Calcutta), Peninsular India (Hyderabad, and Sanchi), Sri Lanka (Anuradhapura), Uzbekistan (Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khiva).
Additions in 2005 include Belgium (Tervuren), the Netherlands (Maastricht), Japan (Tokyo), the Philippines (Manila), the Western United States (Central Pacific Railroad and Grass Valley), Peninsular India (Udaipur), and expanded coverage of Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Mumbai, and the monuments around Agra.
Additions in 2006 include Japan (Nara and Horyuji), Pakistan (Lahore), the United States (Oklahoma City), and the UK (Liverpool, Manchester, Cambridge, and Wigan).
Additions in 2007 include Egypt (Historic Cairo, Paris on the Nile, and Skirting the Delta), China (Guangzhou, Gulangyu, Thames Town and Citta di Pujiang), Greece, UAE (expanded coverage of Dubai), Yemen (Sana'a, Aden, and Shibam), and North India (Lucknow , Cuttack, Bhubaneshwar, Konarak, Puri, Chandigarh, and expanded coverage of Shimla).
Additions in 2008 include expanded coverage of Egypt (Luxor Temple, Karnak, Medinat Hapu, the Ramesseum, Temple of Hatshepsut, and five tombs in the Theban Necropolis), Jordan (Jerash), Dallas (Texas, Western U.S.), Almora District and Naini Tal (Northern India), Bassein Fort, Pune, and Mahabaleshwar (Peninsular India), expanded coverage of Trinidad, Imperial Berlin (Germany), and Vienna (Austria).
Additions in 2009 include additional pictures for Morocco (Marrakech), Australia (Northern Territory), Malaysia (Kuching), Peninsular India (Old Goa and Panaji, Bijapur, Badami, Pattadakal, Aihole, and Karnataka road trip), China (Taiyuan, Jinci, Tianlongshan, Foguangsi, Pingyao, Urumqi, Turpan, and Kashgar), and Vietnam (Hanoi, Hue, Hoi An, Saigon/HCMC, and Cantho).
Additions in 2010 include Eastern U.S. (New York City), Western U.S. (Big Bend), Peninsular India (Aurangabad, Deogiri Fort, and Ellora), Italy (Siena, San Gemignano, and Giglio), United Kingdom (Ironbridge), Belgium (Mons and the Ascenseur de Strepy), South Africa, Namibia, and Mozambique.
Additions in 2011 include Kenya, Tanzania, Hungary, the Czech Republic, France, Japan (Return to Yokohama), Germany (Berliner Moderne, Berlin Discovers Glass, Dessau and the Bauhaus, Speyer Cathedral, and Rothenberg ob der Tauber), the UK (Kedleston Hall and 10 folders on London), and the Western U.S. (Los Angeles 2011 and San Diego).
Additions in 2012 include China (Macao, Shantou, Shanghai Checkup), India (Diu and Diu Fort, Hampi), Italy (Rome: More Churches), Spain (Madrid and Toledo), and Mexico City.
Coming in 2013: Poland (Warsaw and Krakow), Ghana (Accra, Cape Coast, Elmina), South Africa (Western Cape), and Malawi (Blantyre).Corrections and comments can be sent to bwallach@ou.edu.