Reaction Paper #1

   When we went to the library to check out a photography book, I picked out Land, Sky, and All That Is Within; Visionary Photographers In The Southwest by James L. Enyeart. This book caught my eye because it shows pictures of and talks about nature landscaped. I enjoy landscape photographs so I immediately became intrigued by this book. In the book it shows photographs from photographers in the southwest such as Ansel Adams, Timothy O'Sullivan, and Edward Curtis to name a few.
   The book has different sections that shows the photographers photographs and then talks about the motivation and artistic value of the photographs. There's a section of the book that is titled Fragment of Reality which touches on Edward Curtis's photographs documenting the North American tribes and how he staged the photographs so that it was the desired effect. He would dress the Native Americans in costumes and romanticized the landscapes. I felt this was interesting in that even nature, which is relatively known as being the truth, could still be manipulated in photographs to convey a message and give off an emotion.
    This book orders the images not by the photographer but by the location that the photographs were taken. I like that a it;s put together in that way because some photographers have taken images at the same location and seeing them side by side lets you see the different perspectives. It also allows you to see how certain southwestern state looked with all the different photographers work being put together. It makes me feel that I've been to that stat
e and saw the magnificent landscapes.