Earthforms: Intimate Portraits of Our Planet falls into the “landscape” category of photography, but its focus on geology takes many of its images beyond conventional landscapes.
In addition to scenic landscapes, many of its images focus on medium-to-close-range compositions of small-scale formations, which I call “miniscapes.” These images exclude perspective and focus rather on the relatively flat picture plane of a rock surface, which functions as a canvas for the abstract and suggestive features of that surface. Having studied Surrealist and Abstract Expressionist painters, those sensibilities pervade my images, some of which evoke particular paintings and stylistic gestures of those painters.
The captions situate each image in its geological context and add cultural references, making it ideal for stimulating interest in geology as well as photography. The inside front cover is a geological time-scale with the page numbers of the images.
The book is dedicated to raising Earth awareness through art, but it also includes photos and essays that present the struggle of the Water Protectors of Standing Rock and their confrontation with North Dakota authorities in 2016.
Earthforms won the 2019 Nautilus Gold Award for Art and Photography. It was the cover story to the June 2019 issue of Natural History Magazine. Images from it are included in Best of the Best Photographers 2019 (Chennai, India: One Eyeland, 2019).
“Earthforms: Intimate Portraits of Our Planet is an outstanding and beautiful compendium of landscape photography that borders on fine art.”—Midwest Book Review
Details: 11x11” hard cover, 121 original images in 168 pages, including 12 pages of captions, plus annotated geological time scale, index, and essays by Daniel P. Sheehan, Chase Iron Eyes, Lyle Rexer, and John Farndon, and the author. ©2019 JSS Books LLC
$37.97 plus tax and shipping
For a generous flip-book style “look inside” sample and more information go to www.earthforms.net
Playgrounds for the Mind takes the notion of geological photography a step further into the metaphorical realm of rock formations. With 33 of its 40 images in rich black and white, and 23 of them flat-picture-plane "miniscapes" or drone-scapes, it expands the idea of the rock surface as provocative canvas. In the opening essay I explain how I discovered the close connection between this type of perspectiveless geological photography and late Surrealist painting (for example, Roberto Matta, Archile Gorky, and Wolfgang Paalen), in that these painters and my geological photographs draw on suggestive or liminal figuration—figurative references that range from the fanciful to the enigmatic. This is what inspired the title of the book.
The second, expanded edition is available at earthforms.net. See "Sequel" in the site menu.
Details: 11x8.5” soft cover, 50 pages. ©2021 JSS Books LLC
$25 plus tax and shipping.
FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS:
Earthforms uses geological photography to open new domains of beauty and creativity in landscape photography. Putting the "WOW" into Your Landscapes is the “how-to” eBook book that shows you the way to do this in your own photography, namely…
- how to look for abstract and figural formations, plus patterns, strata, and textures in strong geological subjects that appear as natural sculptures or flat, narrow-field surfaces (“miniscapes”)
- how to find amazing destinations with Instagram and Pinterest and plan your travel most efficiently
- how to process your geological and other images to bring out their richest and most evocative visual power
- where to find inspiration from master photographers on the web and in selected photo books
- how to expand your vision through non-photographic art
- how to refine your technique to get the most out of any location
And if you’re just starting out, this eBook also includes
- a basic primer on photographing landscapes
- The second half of the book provides
- an analysis of every one of the 121 images in Earthforms to get you into the habit of
deeper seeing. - Details: 173 pages, 85 unique illustrative photos NOT in Earthforms + all 121 photos in EARTHFORMS analyzed
Purchasers of Earthforms receive 50% discount on Putting the "WOW" into Your Landscape Photography
list: $27.95 your price: $13.99.
Available on the earthforms.net website, earthforms.net
©2020 JSS Books LLC
