John S. Kiewit

This is a celebration of the old, the worn, the rusted, and the abandoned. The 120 mostly color images here, taken mostly off the beaten path in the west, are paired with notes from the author's journal or with very apt quotations. There are more useful ideas and examples here than in any book I've read about composition. His perspectives are usually fresh—even his shot of that iconic subject, Rancho de Taos, in New Mexico is different. The gentle arc of a hill behind a barn in Elgin, Oregon, the cold winter light on two weathered buildings in Bodie, California, and the intersecting geometries of a cluster of barns in Basalt, Colorado will stay with you long after you've forgotten the photographer's name. Even a novice might find himself saying, "I could do that," as he leafs through the book—a novice, that is, who had the patience to put away his camera in the middle of the day and wait until a setting sun warmed the scene. If I were teaching a course in composition, there is no book I would select ahead of this one.… (altro)