Desert, The Mojave and Death Valley Photographs by jack Dykinga, text by Janice Emily Bowers

[Ellis Vener]

There is a knock at my door and is the UPS man delivering my order from Amazon.com; Among the books: Desert, The Mojave and Death Valley Photographs by jack Dykinga, text by Janice Emily Bowers. I barely had time to read more than a page or two before it made me want to go straight to the photos to see what see was was clearly, intelligently, passionately writing about. And I was not disappointed, I was overwhelmed with joy at the keeness of Mr. Dykinga's fine vision. This is a more subtle body of work than the previous books based around his photographs. TheSonoran Desert had a similar effect on me in a bold way for his vision was louder then. Stone Canyons did not have as great of affect on me as TheSonoran Desert .

More than anything else, the images in this book remind me why the large format camera is such a tremendous aid to seeing something more clearly and perceptively than you can with the naked eye. Some of the photos even have a sense of humor to them and when did you last see that in a photograph of a natural landscape?

The reproduction of the images appears to be first rate and the design and typography of the book match its contents in quality.

In short there are wonderful things to be found in this book.

[Julio Fernandez]

Ellis: Amen. Surprisingly you were rather late, this time, but better late than never. You are first to post it in the LFF however and am glad you did! Enjoy. Note that this book could not have been produced without digital technology as I believe data on its production indicates.

[Stewart Ethier]

I just ran across a more recent Dykinga book, "Large Format Nature Photography." Less than 6 months after publication, it was already remaindered at a local bookstore. But think about it: How many large format color nature photographers are there out there? In any case, the book is highly recommended and the pictures are beautiful.

[Bill Hahn]

I believe the latest issue of "View Camera" (the one that arrived at my house yesterday) has an article by Mr. Dykinga about packbacking with a large format camera, complete with photographs showing how he packs the equipment.