photography

Birds of the Photo Ark

By Joel Sartore
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by LeeAnn B.
Jul 5, 2018

Birds inhabit every corner of our planet and represent freedom to many people throughout the world.  In this impressive book, photographer Joel Sartore shares images of captive birds from his work with the National Geographic Society on the Photo Ark project—an undertaking to document every living species in the world’s wildlife sanctuaries and zoos.  His photographs inspire wonder as you flip through these pages.  The accompanying text by Noah Strycker offers fascinating information about the world of birds.  The diversity---10,500 species of birds at last count; the speed of some birds---the

The Salt of the Earth (DVD)

By Wim Wenders
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Michelle H.
Nov 22, 2016

Photojournalist  Sebastiao Salgado is known for his pictures of less developed countries, most specifically of regions swept into economic forces unleashed upon them by Western industry. Some of his photos, while technically stunning, depict humanities worst atrocities – forced exile, exploitation, extermination. 

Here he is presented by legendary filmmaker Wim Wenders, also an accomplished photographer. Salgado responds to Wenders’ questions with answers that reveal the strain of seeing humanity at its worst. By extension, we are similarly affected. The Salt of the Earth is the kind of film

The New Bohemians: Cool & Collected Homes

By Justina Blakeney
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Hannah Jane W.
Aug 29, 2016

The first time I read this I thought that it was much too wild for my taste. After spending the next year flipping through it every time it came through the library it was obvious that I was in love with this crazy book so I reread it and now we're besties. It’s comprised of different takes on the bohemian style – everything from modern to nomadic to earthy. You may even discover that you’re one or more of these styles and go about changing things up in your home. A lot of the finds in this book came from craigslist and thrift shops, which is excellent news for those of us who are treasure

A Fine Romance - Falling in Love with the English Countryside

By Susan Branch
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by Sarah As
Apr 29, 2015

Anglophiles listen up – this book is for you! Talented artist, writer, and blogger Susan Branch has put together a charming travel journal of her two month long trip to England. A Fine Romance is chock full of wonderful photos she and her husband took on their trip interspersed with the colorful drawings and lettering that have set apart her work and style as distinctly her own.

The trip starts off with a six day ocean voyage, onboard the Queen Mary 2, from New York to Southampton, England. This dream trip is divided into mainly three areas – the Southwest of England, the Lake District and

This Is Who I Am

By Rosanne Olson
Star Rating
★★★★★

Rated by Caitlin P
Mar 29, 2015

Wow. There is no other word for this book but wow.

This is an incredibly powerful work of art that combines nude photos of women of all ages, ethnicity and body shape with short essays written by the woman posing, describing who they are and how they feel about their body. Each picture is uniquely crafted to be simple yet exquisitely beautiful by merely depicting women in a raw, honest way. 

While the pictures may be what initially attract readers (it’s hard not to be intrigued by a book with a naked woman on the cover), it is the stories that truly make This Is Who I Am so moving. There is

Maddie on Things: A Super Serious Project About Dogs and Physics

By Theron Humphrey
Star Rating
★★★★

Rated by Hope H.
Jun 9, 2014

May was National Photo Month, so I picked up a few books light on words but chock-full of story.  Maddie on Things: A Super Serious Project About Dogs and Physics is like a pictorial version of a couple of my favorites, John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley and William Least Heat Moon’s Blue Highways.  This is another take on touring the country to discover America.

Contrary to the subtitle, I didn’t learn much about dogs or physics, nor is it super serious.  Instead I got to witness Theron Humphrey’s heart-warming journey of discovery and growing fondness for Maddie, the rescue coonhound

Mar 8, 2013

You may remember Sally Mann from a book of photographs published in the 1990s. The book includes a number of photographs of Mann’s children hanging out, without clothing, near the family’s cabin beside a lake. The photographs were hailed by art critics as a tremendous achievement while criticized by many, many others because they put her children on display. I rented What Remains because I was curious about how Mann’s career had developed and whether or not her adult children had mixed feelings concerning their mother’s success. The topic is brought up only once in the documentary when Mann

One Hundred Butterflies by Harold Feinstein


Rated by Library Staff (not verified)
Jun 3, 2012

A collection of 100 close-up color photos of exotic butterflies against black backgrounds. It’s an adult book that held the interest of 5 children for over an hour. Some photos capture the top and bottom sides of the butterflies. Visually stunning. A few pages include quotations from writers like Wordsworth, Hans Christian Andersen, Hawthorne, and Shelley.

Sep 1, 2009

Two reviews ago I declared Sherman Alexie’s The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian a must read. So I fear readers might deem me as too generous is declaring The Photographer a must read so soon afterward. But alas, it’s a risk I will have to take.
The Photographer, in a unique collaboration between photographer, graphic artists and friends, chronicles the four month journey of Didier Lefevre’s first of eight trips to Afghanistan where he documented the work of Doctors Without Borders. It is an especially good introduction, not only to Afghan culture but to the causes of the ongoing

Apr 14, 2009

On a whim, after passing through Wyoming on her way home to New York, Shreve Stockton decides to pack it all in and move to this absolutely foreign place. There, she discovers a life far different from what she had previously known. She finds herself in the role of caregiver of a coyote pup, whom she names Charlie, and begins sending out daily pictures to friends and family. Those e-mails grew into www.dailycoyote.net and later into this book, The Daily Coyote.

While the day to day challenges of raising a coyote pup amidst the animosity of local ranchers are interesting, the book bogs down in