Richard Misrach – A Life’s Work




Richard Misrach has dedicated himself to a single project for a lifetime – the Desert Cantos. Begun in 1979, the Desert Cantos is a series of series that takes its name from its location, the American desert southwest, and the structural term for a subsection of a long song or poem. Each canto varies in subject matter, the amount of time it spans, and the number of works included. Numbered as each canto is completed, the first fourteen cantos, in order, are The Terrain, The Event, The Flood, The Fires, The War (Bravo 20), The Pit, Desert Seas, The Event II, Project W-47 (The Secret), The Test Site, The Playboys, Clouds, The Inhabitants, and The Visitors. Stranded Rowboat, Salton Sea is from the third canto, The Flood. Stylistically ranging in sensibility between minimalism, realism, romanticism, impressionism, and expressionism, Misrach’s work is sometimes challenging aesthetically and always subtly steeped in the social issues that surround land use, ultimately becoming an extended meditation on how man (particularly the American psyche) and nature (specifically the American southwest) define one another.

Misrach thinks of all his desert pictures as part of a single great work, divided by smaller themes and stylistic treatments. When collected together, they become a monumental study constructed by wide-ranging explorations of many aspects of a complex subject with a long history and ultimately a rumination on self and identity. The American west is the landscape that defined the American psyche as we know it. Through his work, we come to understand that both may be stranger than we think.

Richard Misrach’s work reminds me of how each work an artist produces is connected to all other works, in one way or another, and that creative development and presentation of that work can highlight those connections, not just for the public but for the artist as well. Even more importantly, he demonstrates the depth and breadth that can be achieved through dedication to a single subject for an extended period of time.

Read my extended conversation with Richard Misrach here.
Find out more about my influences here.







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Unknown Patagonia – Free eBook – Linde Waidhofer


Linde Waidhofer has released her latest book – Unknown Patagonia – available in hardcover or as a free ebook.
“This book is a visual exploration of a precious and so-far unspoiled part of the world that I have fallen in love with. But Central Chilean Patagonia, the Patagonia that no one knows, is a threatened landscape—threatened by destructive mega-dam projects and enormous ugly power transmission lines.”
Read more on Outdoor Photographer.
Download Unknown Patagonia here.
You’ll also find 6 other free ebooks of her beautiful landscape photography.

Learn more about Linde Waidhofer here.
Find out about my Patagonia digital photography workshop here.

Alumni Participate in The View Project


Alumni Kathy Beal and Stephen Starkman are included in Joyce Tenneson’s book and exhibit The View Project.
Photographs and comments by a wide array of  photographers are included – John Paul Caponigro, Sean Kernan, Douglas  Kirkland, George Lepp, Jack Resnicki, Rick Sammon, Joyce Tenneson, Jerry  Uelsmann, and many more.
The View Project, conceived and organized  by Joyce Tenneson, is an exploration of why certain places or  photographs that have such a powerful effect on us as individuals. What  is it – beyond surface beauty – that makes specific visual moments so  indelible in our memory?
“The View Project is about photographs that  mirror something in the  photographer’s inner life – images that are  personal and powerful, yet  perhaps not clearly understood, even to the  viewer/photographer” –  Joyce Tenneson

The View Project – Joyce Tenneson

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“The View Project is about photographs that mirror something in the photographer’s inner life – images that are personal and powerful, yet perhaps not clearly understood, even to the viewer/photographer” – Joyce Tenneson
.
The View Project, conceived and organized by Joyce Tenneson, is an exploration of why certain places or photographs that have such a powerful effect on us as individuals. What is it – beyond surface beauty – that makes specific visual moments so indelible in our memory?
.
Photographs and comments by a wide array of photographers are included – John Paul Caponigro, Sean Kernan, Douglas Kirkland, George Lepp, Jack Resnicki, Rick Sammon, Joyce Tenneson, Jerry Uelsmann, and many more.
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A travelling exhibit will soon open.
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New Book – Barbara Ventura – White Sands

Ventura_WhiteSands

White Sands : A Place of Being
A set of images with no words that evoke a sense of peace and admiration for the wonders of creation.
“One of those special, unique and majestic places that has been created as a sample and expression of beauty. Inspiring, sensual, magnificent exhibiting the touch of a master painter everywhere you look. To be in the Presence and surrounded by white sand as far as you can see, resounding with silence that penetrates the deepest part of being, with unending possibilities of capturing images, brands your soul forever!
Find the book here.
Learn more about Barbara Ventura here.
Contact Barabara Ventura at barbara@barbaraventura.com

William Neill – Impressions of Light Digital Book


World reknowned landscape photographer William Neill recently released his new digital book Impressions of Light containing all new work with a twist. “Throughout my career, I have been seeking to inspire passion for the natural world and convey my emotional response to the subjects I photograph – that of awe and wonder. In 2005, when I learned a new way for me to convey such an emotional response by the use of camera movement during exposure, I began creating a new body of work entitled Impressions of Light. Inspired by color photographers Ernst Haas and Freeman Patterson, and of course the great Impressionistic painters, this work is simply another way. See how experimentation reinvigorates a contemporary master’s process in this new work.
Containing 100 pages with 69 photographs, Impressions of Light is available as a downloadable PDF only. A special introductory price of $15.00 USD is available until October 1 – thereafter $19.95.
Read more about and see more of William Neill’s Impressions of Light digital book here.