Well, Oprah is off for the week. So she asked me to step in to fill the void for the book club puppet master. Sorry to say, no one go looking under your chairs… you won’t be finding a set of keys to your new Toyota 2009 Toyota Prius. She gave me the job, not the budget… But if you bring this review with you to any participating Starbucks location, they will give you the “Sixtyone North Special Price” on a Tall (their small) cup of milk (oops, I meant coffee) for only $12.99, while supplies last!
In all seriousness, I haven’t had this much fun looking through a coffee table book in a long time, and I’m a card carrying member of CTBA (Coffee Table Books Anonymous). John Schwieder is an Anchorage, Alaska, based photographer who specializes in the natural world and all it’s denizens. John first moved to Alaska in the early 1980’s. He served as a climbing guiding on Denali, a commercial fisherman, and a medivac flight paramedic.
Per his website: (his) photographs have appeared in numerous books, magazines, and other publications including National Geographic Adventure, Alaska Magazine, Alaska Geographic, Inside/Outside, Canoe, Alaska Milepost, The Nature Conservancy, Natural Resources Defense Council, Alaska Wilderness League, Outdoor Photographer, Patagonia, Paddler Magazine, and in the book Alaska: Portrait of a State by Graphic Arts Books. Alaska: America’s Wildest State is John’s first solo book.
The book is a self-published endeavor. The presentation flawless, and the content beautiful. Portfolio chapters include: Coastal, Interior, Arctic, an Image Index (which, for metadata nerds like myself, gives you a short story behind each photograph. Including the occasional photographic insight.), and a short section on Photographing Alaska. The colors are beautiful and consistent with the photographic prints I have seen of his work, the mark of a true color accuracy perfectionist. There are over 150 photographs in the book, and although the majority of them contain wildlife in the image, you will also find many striking landscape photographs. Intimate animal portraits, animals in their environment, and grand landscapes literally jumping off the page(s) just screaming to be explored. You will look out over glaciers and glacial fjords, see the stunning view of Denali reflecting in Wonder Lake, watch whale tails slapping against cold waters and exhaling mist into the clear Alaskan air. You can get an intimate view of a puffin standing precariously on the edge of a sheer cliff above crashing waves, see the power of brown bear on the Katmai coast, and almost feel the rumbling of several hundred hooves striking the ground as a herd of caribou cross a river in the far north. This is Alaska, intimate, and in grand scale.
Alaska: America's Wildest State by John Schwieder
In the introduction to the book he states,
“John Muir’s Alaska has changed. Cruise ships ply waters once ruled by the Tlingit in long dugout canoes. Tour buses navigate roads that now stretch clear to the Arctic Ocean. Oil has been discovered. Yet the wilderness of Alaska continues to beckon.”
Although this is so very true – you might be fooled into thinking it has not changed, as you look at the photographs in this book. And hopefully wish that it will never change. This book is a great testament to the phrase that a picture is worth a thousand words, and that in many circumstances – photographers, like John Schwieder, are leading the way in conservation efforts. For those of you who have never ventured to Alaska, the photographs often will look otherworldly. For those of us lucky enough to witness some of these sights for ourselves, it will only make you wish to get out more… and search for the rare light that John seems to find on a regular basis. The book costs $49.95 plus $10 shipping. Highly recommended.
To come: an insightful interview with John Schwieder, only to be found here. Stay tuned!
www.wildernesspics.com
Direct link to purchase the book from photographer
Sixtyone North's Journal 