Sch-Canyons of the Southwest

With 15 years experience as a wilderness guide in some of the most spectacular landscape in North America, Annerino seems well-suited to assemble this brilliantly photographed, informatively written book. -Fresno Bee

I love Annerino's passionate clear ideas and descriptions

Annerino who has been praised by Newsweek for the sensitivity and dynamics of his high-risk photography, covers the Great Canyon country from Colorado, to Zion National Park in Utah, to the Grand Canyon and Sedona's red rock country in Arizona, to Los Canones del Isla Tiburon in Mexico, to Canon del Diablo in Baja, California. Listen to the text: "The parched winds still whisper to the magic waters, and the canyon still liustens, as it has for the last 2 million years," Annerino writes of the Black canyon of the Gunnison River in Colorado. Eloquent. The photographs are even more eloquent -- spectacular, sensitive and beautiful. He captures the canyons in photo image and words. -The Arizona Republic

Those Mighty Canyons. Some of the most beautiful photography you will ever see anywhere hits your eye with a soft and magnificent touch in "Canyons of the Southwest" by John Annerino. The book covers some of the most rugged terrain on the face of the earth: the combined American Southwest and the Mexican Northwest. The photographs show a real grasp of what the camera can do under the hands of a skilled photographer with these mighty places on the North American continent. The book is approximately half text and half pictures. A telling blend, showing not only how these massive canyons were formed, but also gives an interesting treatise on the plant and animal life of the region. "Canyons of the Southwest" is a memorable record of one of the world's most spectacular regions. It is cited as a tale of living history and well it should be. -Neshoba Democrat

Foremost are the photographs. I would call Annerino's canyon portraits the best of a really good lot, even over big-time large-format photographers. While the large-format works are stunning artistic studies of light and color shot with impossibly huge f-stops, Annerino's canyon photographs give expression to the phrase "wearing one's heart on the sleeve." His photos have an active passion that others lack. Anyone who knows him will say he is among the "hardmen' to tackle the Southwestern mountains and canyons, but that he is definitely the most sincere in his passion for place. Perhaps, because of this he lacks a calculated commercial view of the places he photographs. His images also record his own passion, creating compelling and unique photographs. More than any other contemporary outdoor photographer, Annerino's photos mirror his love of the land's people. In the text, Annerino portrays canyonlands people as part of what makes the places special. He has a deep affection for past and present native peoples, but unlike some Anglo North Americans, Annerino isn't a lost 20th century soul. Rather, he seems to have a straightfoward and genuine admiration for native people, and has learned a great deal about them. His research on each canyon's history is impressive. Annerino writes with an immensity commensurate with his subject. His style is old-fashioned, evoking an older, more grandiose era of writing of explorers like Powell and Pattie. While many modern writers seem bent on infusing themselves into as much of the story as possible, Annerino's style is not so full of himself as full of the intensity of his canyon experiences...Annerino is at his best when he writes about Mexico, especially the Big Bend passage where he talks about the injustices served the Mexican across the river at the hands of our national park there. An optimist who sees great things in the canyons, Annerino neither ignores nor dwells on the obvious problems facing the West like pollution and development. And fortunately, CANYONS OF THE SOUTHWEST is not a treasure map guidebook to these areas. -Desert Skies