Book Reviews

A Distant Land: The Photography of John Pfahl

            When I look at a photographers work I usually know if I will like it or not in about ten second after opening their book or website. His first set of photographs in his book, Altered Landscapes, was about where I decided that I really enjoyed this mans work.  Great Salt Lake Angles was the photograph that made me really stop. It almost looks like a painting with how well the colors change on the top of the water. He has a set of photographs called Power Places, that all have a power plant in the distant background. Whether he meant the photographs this way or not, I love this set, because I feel like its showing that there are so many beautiful places around the country that are just either getting destroyed or the beauty is taken away by these massive power plants. Each pictures looks so beautiful, than in the corner he will hide the power plant. There enough that it takes you a second to look it over, but once you notice it, it’s all you can see. Another set I really enjoyed was Waterfalls. All the waterfalls that he photographed where waterfalls where the nature and civilization collided, with that being said, in each one of the photographs the waterfall is the main subject. I’m really happy with his work because not only are they beautiful photographs they also really try to capture the human presents in nature, whether it destroys the view or makes it almost better.

Wynn Bullock: Revelation

            When first looking through the photographs I thought to my self, man do I love black and white photography. I love the gray scale that goes along with it, with the dark blacks and bright whites. Nude photographs are not something I have looking into or photographed myself, that being said Bullock does a really good job photographing the female body in different areas. When looking through the photographs I can honestly say I don’t think there is a single photograph that I don’t like. Maybe because a handful of them are in black and white, but they all have such a beautiful look to them. I love the darkness of them he uses such a wide scale but more focus are the really dark and the really bright. His last section is entirely abstract work. He uses both nature and light to create the abstract photographs.