Three photography books
The Wisconsin Book Festival focuses on pictures
Book folks, this one’s for you.
Many of you know that I caught the programming bug this year. In addition to curating two exhibitions, I organized a photography speaker series to dovetail with the PhotoMidwest Festival, which kicked off at the Arts + Literature Laboratory in September. It’s been a whirlwind few months and my head is still spinning.
I haven’t written much about this, but I’ve been collaborating with my friend Jane Rotonda, who runs the Wisconsin Book Festival, to present a series of photography book talks for this year’s event. On Saturday, we welcomed three imagemakers to Madison to share their work in an afternoon of environmental photobook talks. The turnout was terrific, and I had a blast.
I adore book people and get a special charge from spending time in their company. And I love bringing artists to Madison to talk about their work. Mary Jo Hoffman, Donald S. Clark, and George Steinmetz traveled to present their books this year. Since so many of you are into art books, I wanted to share them with you. There’s a bit of something for everyone. I hope you like them!
Mary Jo Hoffman started blogging her photography in 2012, and the rest, as they say, is history. STILL: The Art of Noticing is part nature meditation and part mindfulness exercise, and Mary Jo’s pictures are gorgeous. Her book dropped in May and is already in its third printing. She’s a big thinker and a soulful artist. I loved meeting her.
Donald S. Clark has been shooting landscapes for years. He got the idea to start calling nature writers and asking if he could photograph the places that inspired their work. Nature’s Writers: Mentored by the Land features images of the homeplaces of more than forty writers, including Terry Tempest Williams, Barry Lopez, and Akiko Busch. If you like reading about place, this book is for you.
Best known for his aerial photography, George Steinmetz has a restless curiosity about the unknown: remote landscapes, our changing climate, and how we can meet humanity's ever-expanding food needs. His latest book, Feed the Nation: A Photographic Journey to the World’s Food, will change how you think about eating. George’s talk was a real eye-opener, and his pictures are stunning.
One more thing…
Photographer Rashod Taylor will be in Madison for our PhotoMidwest closing reception on Saturday, November 2. He’ll teach a fine art portrait photography workshop and give an artist talk about his photography. These events are free and open to the public. Please join us!
What a special event! And my oh my, don’t these books look incredibly juicy… Thank you for sharing them 🤎
Awesome selections. Wish I had been there!