The American Wilderness in the Words of John Muir

This is one of the best Ansel Adams books out there published by Bulfinch. It uses heavy paper stock and the print quality is excellent. To appreciate its quality, you have to view it under a brighter light setting, preferrably next to a window. You'll notice all the details in the shadow area and appreciate the overall print contrast. In terms of subject area, the book covers many National Parks, including Yosemite, Yellowstone, Joshua Tree, Grand Teton, Grand Canyon, Glacier... Unfortunately, it does not have all the famous Yosemite prints, but it does have many other gems that's not over exposed to the public. Some people may complain about the price, buy I think its worth every dime. Buy one and enjoy it.

If you're a fan of Ansel Adams, you will absolutely love this book. It's 127 pages of breathtaking photography with poetic writings by John Muir. The images fill the entire page while subtle text accompanies the photographs. "I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay out until sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in." These passages work hand in hand with the photographs giving a meditative quality about them. For a split moment you actually feel like you are physically standing in that surrounding and experiencing the beauty of nature. Adams and Muir work as a unit to document this beautiful phenomenon we call nature and present it to us in this book called America's Wilderness.This book allows you to appreciate the beauty of America from the vast mountaintops to the endless plains to the ever-changing cloud formation. He captures the essence of Mother Nature and all her minute details. This book would be far from complete if it were not for the eloquent writings of John Muir. Though Muir has long passed away, his writing, fortunately, will never depart.

This book is flawed by the images selected to be in it. The other main weakness is that the book is clearly overpriced. The good news, however, is that the image sizes are large enough to capture the power and majesty of Adams' work. The reproduction quality is superb, as well!The essay by William Turnage is an excellent discussion of the roles of Thoreau, Muir, and Adams in creating the awareness that has helped us to save and cherish some of what remains of our American wilderness. The artist-turned-conservation leader, Adams' role, is a particularly important function in our society. The artist helps us to experience what we have never seen while the conservation leader takes actions that galvanize the emotions that are evoked by nature and the artist into helpful improvements. When the artist and conservation leader are the same person, there is a combined power and continuity of vision that is irresistible. Thank goodness!Adams is someone we should all admire for another reason. His nature photography and conservation efforts were hobbies, labors of love. Photography of nature is a field that offered meaningful remuneration only in recent years. His day job was doing commercial photography. He took pictures of dead people in the Los Angeles morgue as well as of open pit copper mines in Utah. What we admire about him was what he did on weekends, before and after work, and on vacations. Because he wanted the most remarkable images, this often meant hiking before dawn in difficult winter conditions to remote peaks to get just the right perspective. Andrea Stillman did a good job of selecting Adams' quotes for her opening remarks. "Photography is a way of telling what you feel about what you see." " . . . [T]he turning out to the light the inner folds of the awareness of the spirit . . ." is what his work is about. Throughout the book, you will find other quotes about Adams' reflections on the wilderness. They are well selected and add much to your consideration of what his images mean. Here are some of my favorite photographs as reproduced in this book:Santa Elena Canyon, Big Bend National Park, Texas, 1947Monument Valley, Arizona, 1942Canyon de Chelly National Monument, 1942Sand Dunes, Sunrise, Death Valley, 1948Sand Dune, White Sands National Monument, 1942The White Stump, Sierra Nevada City, 1936Terraya Creek, Dogwood Rain, Yosemite, 1948Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite, 1944Half Dome, Winter, from Glacier Point, Yosemite, 1940Leaves, Mills College, Oakland, California, 1931Maroon Bells, Near Aspen, Colorado, 1951Old Faithful (4), Yellowstone, 1942Mount McKinley and . . . Lake, Denali National Park, Alaska, 1947After you have finished being refreshed and rejuvenated by these inspiring images, I suggest that you contemplate what the wilderness meant to your grandparents and parents, what it meant to you as a child, what it means to you now, and what it means to your children. If you are like me, you will see that wilderness i

America's Wilderness is a nice book with huge size. However, seen as a novice photographer who has studied hundreds of photo books, this book do not contain the best photos of Ansel Adams large production. The best of Ansel Adams photos can be find in the books where photos are selected by Ansel Adams himself. The books representing Ansel Adams best master pieces are for example Yosemite, Classic Images, Examples: The Making of 40 photograps and The American Wilderness (not same book as this one). However this book is a beaty, too.

The photographic images of Ansel Adams are among the most significant pieces of artwork which have been created within the 20th century. His techniques have revolutionized the world of the black and white photographer, and his images are the rule by which all others are measured. His art has spoken to the soul of millions, and you should not be left out! This book contains some of the most beautiful images of nature ever made, and is a bargain at twice the price! Review by Edward Lynn, student of commercial photography, The Art Institute of Seattle