A Natural History of Western New York
Former University of Rochester professor Herman Fairchild once claimed “The territory about the city of Rochester (NY) is unsurpassed in variety and excellence of its geologic structures and scenic features”. The Crescent Trail in the town of Perinton, NY provides a direct way for anyone to experience up close this region for themselves. Such experiences resulted in a series of essays by the author and others that were originally published in the Crescent Trail News. The essays combine the authors’ personal experiences walking through the landscape and among the and plants with both hard-to-find historical writings and contemporary studies. Together they bring that environment to life. Those essays and some new information are brought together for the first time in this book.
While on one level, this work can be a guide book for anyone exploring the region, more importantly it can help us understand how forces, some ancient and some contemporary, influence our lives. Through this understanding, we gain a deeper sense of place. And, as the author and conservationist Paul Gruchow observed, “with out a sense of place … we will never be truly human.”
New Mexico Abstractions
While photography is arguably best known for its ability to capture the beauty in the realistic representation of a scene, in New Mexico Abstractions, ten photographers explore beyond the literal and interpret the natural and human-made landscape near Santa Fe, New Mexico through abstraction.
Rather than a “capture”, these images are a dialog between the photographer and the scene. The result, sometime serendipitously, includes but goes beyond the photographer’s reaction to what is in front of their lens. Collectively, the images represent each photographer’s unique metaphor through which they connect with and share universal meanings.
A Sense of Place
The seven photographers whose work is presented in this book spent five days together journeying to and photographing the natural and human-made landscape around Santa Fe, New Mexico. The locations were as diverse as the city itself, the lush meadowlands of the Valles Caldera, the aspens of the National Forest and the red rocks of Abiquiu.
But critical was the diversity of the photographers themselves. For while external elements help us develop an intimacy with a location: the people and culture, the sights and sounds, and, of course, the land itself, it is authenticity and emotional connection that lie at the heart of every successful image, and these elements are only found within.
The larger journey was the one the participants underwent to uncover and identify their own unique interpretations and styles, to create images that communicate a deeper meaning of place.
Photographic Haiku
In Photographic Haiku, eleven photographers express their personal experience of Santa Fe, New Mexico through photographs that embody the principles exemplified by the poetry form Haiku. In the spirit of Haiku, the photographs in this book are authentic and personal; they reveal beauty in the ordinary.
Zzyzx and the Mojave Natural Reserve
The photographs in the book resulted from a week-long workshop in the Mojave Natural Reserve using the Desert Studies Center in Zzyzx, California as a home base. The workshop was lead by the well known photographer and educator Robert Dawson.
This book presents the work of seven participants in the workshop, Mitchel Yee, Bill Scharf, James Gilmore, Craig Cheatham, Julia Brandreth, Douglas Stinson and Nadine Defranoux. The subject these photographs range from the idiosyncratic and often decaying architecture of the once religious retreat that is now the Desert Studies Center, through the surreal environment of Zzyzx, to the natural geologic and flora wonders of the Mojave Desert.
Beauty in Transition
Vanitas is an important genre of still life that juxtaposes beauty with symbols of decay. It seeks to remind one of one’s own mortality; that the pleasures of the day are fleeting.
The photographs of leaves, flowers and seeds in this book hold a mirror to that concept and instead show that in every stage of life – including death – beauty develops. Instead of fear of mortality, they bring a feeling of continuity, optimism and joy.
Twenty Views of a Palm
Inspired by a workshop on manipulated Polaroids, this book captures my obsession with this palm tree. I have no idea why I am so obsessed with that damn tree. Buy this book, and if you figure it out, let me know. You can use the Contact Me page.
The most creative bit of glass work in the city: The art and conservation of Bruce Porter’s St. Christopher window
This book weaves a web with strands that connect a favorite saint, an American revolution in stained glass design, a west-coast cultural renaissance, and a now obscure Swedish scientist and theologian. With beautiful photographs and prose, it brings to life the art and science of art conservation as dedicated people of various talents and interests struggle to preserve a cherished part of America’s cultural heritage.
Just as Porter cut glass and shaped lead when he first created his legendary stained glass, Douglas Stinson and Ariana Makau have fashioned and formed an artistic story of its restoration more than a century later. Revealing the modern techniques of restitution craftsmanship against the backdrop of significant San Francisco history, this book is its own work of art.”
James Lawrence, Assistant Professor of Spirituality, Graduate Theological Union and Dean of the Swedenborgian House of Studies.
