Robert Polidori is not only one of the world's preeminent architecture photographers, but he is also a master of urban portraiture. Polidori has made haunting studies of bombed-out buildings in Beirut, decaying New York tenements, the Palais de Versailles in dusty disarray, Brasilia's paean to spare 1950s modernism, and, most recently, the abandoned, contaminated cities of Chernobyl and Pripyat. Taken together, they add to his ongoing project: the interpretation of the interrupted urban landscape.<BR>This new book combines the eye of a celebrated photographer with the distinctive voice of an artist and adventurer. Each image is accompanied by a first-person account, based on interviews conducted by Martin C. Pedersen, executive editor of Metropolis magazine. Polidori tells behind-the-scenes stories about the making of his photographs and discusses his approach to shooting a variety of locations and structures, taking us to such places as Shanghai, Rio de Janeiro, Las Vegas, and Chandigarh.