Book Review: Lost in Learning: The art of discovery by Eva Koleva Timothy
This is a book of quiet beauty, filled with stories and images about learning and discovery from the great explorers, scientists and artists of the Renaissance.
The aim of this book is to ignite a passion for learning, discovery and creativity. Timothy asks, “What is the profound secret that led the great minds of the Renaissance to such astonishing breakthroughs and discoveries during a time when information was comparatively limited?”
Her inquiry includes excerpts from the original manuscripts of Galileo, Newton, da Vinci and others. “These were men and women are not so much different than you or me,” she argues, “These people were not simply born to greatness. They were individuals who cultivated such a powerful sense of creative curiosity that nothing could stop them from fulfilling their desires for discovery.”
Timothy’s evocative black and white photographs portray a metaphoric and symbolic visual lens of learning. “The Age of Discovery was an era when people first took a lens and pointed it across the sea in search of new worlds. Or turned it Heavenward exploring worlds beyond our own. Or focused on something as simple as a blade of grass, revealing the worlds within worlds.”
She says, “As a photographer, I have often found the camera lens to be an apt metaphor for our own lives. We choose our focal points. We determine how much light to let in. We decide whether to view life through the dreary windows of skepticism or through the lens of hope and opportunity.”
This book invites us to slow down, pause, and reflect on our own journey of learning and discovery.
Lost in Learning won the first place Professional Books in the PX 3 Awards, and has recently been collected by the US Library of Congress, The British Library, the National Art Library, and the University of Oxford. Photographs from the project are now part of the Smithsonian collection.
Buy Lost in Learning on Amazon.
