Desert, The Mojave and Death Valley Photographs by jack Dykinga, text by Janice Emily Bowers

[ellis_vener_photography]

There is a knock at my door and is the UPS man delivering my

order from Amazon.com; Among the books: <B><U>Desert, The

Mojave and Death Valley</B></U> Photographs by jack Dykinga,

text by Janice Emily Bowers.

I barely had time to read more than a page or two before it made

me want to go straight to the photos to see what see was was

clearly, intelligently, passionately writing about. And I was not

disappointed, I was overwhelmed with joy at the keeness of Mr.

Dykinga's fine vision. This is a more subtle body of work than the

previous books based around his photographs.

<U>TheSonoran Desert </U> had a similar effect on me in a

bold way for his vision was louder then. <U>Stone Canyons</U>

did not have as great of affect on me as <U>TheSonoran Desert

</U>.<P>More than anything else, the images in this book

remind me why the large format camera is such a tremendous

aid to seeing something more clearly and perceptively than you

can with the naked eye. Some of the photos even have a sense

of humor to them and when did you last see that in a photograph

of a natural landscape?<P>The reproduction of the images

appears to be first rate and the design and typography of the

book match its contents in quality. <P>In short there are

wonderful things to be found in this book.

[upscan]

Ellis: Amen. Surprisingly you were rather late, this time, but better

late than never. You are first to post it in the LFF however and am

glad you did! Enjoy. Note that this book could not have been produced

without digital technology as I believe data on its production

indicates.

[stewart_ethier2]

I just ran across a more recent Dykinga book, "Large Format

Nature Photography." Less than 6 months after publication, it

was already remaindered at a local bookstore. But think about it:

How many large format color nature photographers are there out

there? In any case, the book is highly recommended and the

pictures are beautiful.

[william_hahn1]

I believe the latest issue of "View Camera" (the

one that arrived at my house yesterday) has an

article by Mr. Dykinga about packbacking with a

large format camera, complete with photographs

showing how he packs the equipment.