By Donna Tennant
Susan Bennerstrom
Essays by Robin Updike, Rod Slemmons, and Sarah Clark-Langager
Susan Bennerstrom’s pastels speak the language of light and mystery. In addition to her art studies at Western Washington University and the University of California at Berkeley, the Seattle native has traveled extensively through the United States and Europe. Drawing and taking photographs both stateside and abroad has contributed to her evolution as an artist. The book’s 67 paintings depict lonely landscapes, moody cities, and ambient interiors and exteriors. Light and shadow play key roles in Bennerstrom’s work, imparting a sense of enigmatic beauty to her subjects. The book’s essays delve into Bennerstrom’s influences (including Edward Hopper), stylistic leanings (including Italian artists Carra and De Chirico), and the way photography contributes to her work. Collectively, the essays and images illustrate the many reasons Bennerstrom’s following extends far beyond the Northwest.
2000 Davidson Galleries, Seattle, in association with the University of Washington Press, Seattle, 800.441.4115, 84 pages, 67 color illustrations, $25 hardbound (ISBN 0-295-97988-7)
Gathering Remnants
A Tribute to the Working Cowboy
Photographs by Kendall Nelson
Text by Felicitas Funke-Riehle
Working cowboys still exist, toiling on the range in much the same way as generations of cowboys before them. The fascination with cowboys and the lands where their labor takes place still thrives. Gathering Remnants: A Tribute to the Working Cowboy, a collection of large-format duotone photographs, chronicles the life of the modern cowboy. More than a documentary of life on the range, the photos pay homage to a simpler, more elemental way of living and thinking—a life that’s not about owning objects, but about independence, individuality, and the freedom to roam.
2000 University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NM, 800.249.7737, 112 pages, 50 duotone plates, $80 hardbound (ISBN 0-9677440-1-6)
View Finder
Mark Klett, Photography, and the Reinvention of Landscape
Photographs by Mark Klett and others
Text by William L. Fox
Part travelog, part historical overview, part biographical study of influential photographer Mark Klett, View Finder: Mark Klett, Photography, and the Reinvention of Landscape documents a two-week trip through the Nevada desert. Klett embarked on the journey to shoot sites originally photographed by Timothy O’Sullivan, William Henry Jackson, and others who captured the West in the late 19th century. The juxtaposition of modern images with the photographs that inspired the trip proves that some places remain basically unchanged, no matter how much the surrounding world develops.
2001 University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NM, 800.249.7737, 320 pages, 65 halftones, $59.95 hardbound (ISBN 0-8263-2219-0), $29.95 softbound (ISB 0-8263-2220-4)
Featured in September 2001