Book Description

The images of early west photographer William Henry Jackson capture a Colorado landscape both pristine and already dramatically affected by the onslaught on western civilization. Standing exactly where Jackson stood, and pointing his own camera in precisely the same direction, John Fielder has rephotographed Jackson's Colorado images to capture the often startling change that has occurred over the last century. The result is both breathtaking and stark, hopeful and disquieting. Jackson's and Fielder's photography is accompanied by thoughtful and provocative essays by respected experts in the environmental field: Roderick Nash, America's foremost wilderness historian and author of Wilderness and the American Mind; Ed Marston, journalist and publisher of High Country News; and Eric Paddock, Curator of Photography at the Colorado Historical Society. John Fielder describes the profound experience of traveling the state and seeing the landscape from Jackson's perspective, and reflects upon changes of the last 130 years.

The contrast between Jackson's and Fielder's photographs not only illuminates Colorado's past but will help us determine the course of land management as we move into the next century. Accompanied by an educational program that includes lectures, a traveling exhibit, newspaper serialization, and television series, this book is aimed at encouraging people to appreciate and reflect on nature, history, and photography as we move into the next century. Colorado: 1870-2000 stands not only as an important document of westward exploration, expansion, and urbanization, but helps define our past and future environmental values. ... Read more

Reviews (23)

A Tale of Two Books
John Fielder is one of America's greatest living photographers, and he brings his love of the Colorado wilderness to this book. His re-shoots of Jacksons 19th century photographs are both beautiful and thought-provoking.... the photographs make it worthwhile.

On the other hand, the text is a different story. Reading a text-only version of this book, one might conclude that the title is a misprint, and that the book should really be called "Colorado 1970 - 2000." Fielder roamed across Colorado capturing the changes in places like Kremmling, Denver, and Ouray, but the text never tells us anything about these places, or why they changed, or why we should care. Instead we get chapters about oil shale and the Forest Service.

Ahem. If I wanted to read about the relationship between Forest Service bureaucrats and small Western towns, I would have bought a book called "The Relationship Between the Forest Service and Small Western Towns." My book is called "Colorado 1870 - 2000." That is what I want to read about.

It's true that oil shale schemes, government agencies, and others have played a role in shaping Colorado in the past 30 years. But before that there were events like the Silver Crash of 1893, the City Beautiful movement, the Depression, World War II, and Urban Renewal. You won't read about those in this book.

The pictures are beautiful, and the text is well-written (if misplaced and unwanted). Just don't expect to learn much about the places you are looking at- except that they are very pretty.

This is a wonderful book
John Fielder has recreated photographs of Colorado that were taken 100 years ago by William Henry Jackson. It's fun to see the changes that have taken place over time. Some change is good, some bad. Fielder even went to the trouble of making sure that the same or similar items, such as trains, automobiles, even people, were in the images that he captured. It's an expensive book, but it's worth the money in my opinion.

Binding Fell Apart
I noticed the review that said this book was worthy of "permanent display on your coffee table." Well, I don't think that will be possible with my book, as the binding fell apart after 6 months. The book has gotten a fair amount of use, but nothing out of the ordinary. I've since seen a similar problem with a couple of the display copies at bookstores (which is why they've been demoted to display copies). So I don't think this is an isolated problem. It seems like the book is so big that they didn't make a strong enough binding for it. So just a warning for this thinking of buying this book. The good news is that, on the advice of one of the reviews, I bought Colorado: Yesterday & Today to replace my copy of Colorado: 1870-2000. I agree that it is the better book and now it will be on permanent display on my coffe-table.

Worthy of permanent display on a coffee table
This book is excellent in look, feel, and quality. It is intriguing to see how much landscape has changed in 130 years. Many times for the better and many times for the worse. In every case it is very interesting to see two pictures side by side and compare 1870 with 2000. The photographer was very meticulous to capture every shot as closely as possible to the original perspective and frame, which really enhances the "then and now" feel of the book.

Clearing Up the Confusion and Getting the Photo Details
There appears to be some confusion as all of the reviews of the original "Colorado 1870-2000" big book are credited to this, the paperback "Colorado 1870-2000 Revisited: The History Behind the Images". This book is a companion book to the original. It takes each photo set from the big book and goes into detail about the location, changes, and how Fielder acquired each photo. These are the things that, being left out of the original, made several people give the big book negative reviews. While it would have been nice (and certainly less expensive) to have everything in one volume, we now have the information for which those disappointed with the big book were looking. While the big book is a piece of coffee table art, the Revisited book fits neatly on your bookshelf, ready to be taken down to answer those questions posed by your friends perusing the big book. I take a bit of offense at having to have paid for two different books, but they belong together and I feel were money well spent; the big book for the beautiful photos and the revisited book for its entertaining and educational material. ... Read more

Book Description

Acclaimed in the nineteenth century as "the world’s most famous landscape photographer," William Henry Jackson and his camera presided over the mapping, bounding, and settling of the American West and the larger American landscape. In this lavishly illustrated study, Peter B. Hales investigates the conversion of America’s landscape from myth to scenery and Jackson’s effect on this cultural transformation.

In this book Peter B. Hales examines the ways Americans viewed their land, and the ways they acted on their beliefs. A study of how an individual affects and was affected by his culture, this is an engrossing story of the contradictions of American culture, the myths that encompass it and give it meaning, and their transformation over a century.

William Henry Jackson himself is rich material for an authoritative study. Not simply a chronicler, he immersed himself and his photographs in the processes of change that swept America from the 1840s until the 1940s. Official photographer to the Hayden Survey of the American West, early explorer of Yellowstone, and celebrant of the Colorado Rockies, Jackson was instrumental in the mass-marketing of landscape photography at the beginning of the twentieth century. Retired in the 1920s, he was rediscovered by the American Scene enthusiasts of the thirties, and found another career as painter of nostalgic images of America’s Golden Age of frontier freedom.

Illustrated with nearly two hundred reproductions of Jackson’s photographs, this work makes major contributions to our understanding of photography, of the American land, and of American culture in its broadest, richest sense. ... Read more

Book Description

The creative and commercial output of William Henry Jackson was staggering. He lived 99 years, and left thousands of paintings, photographs, sketches, prints, illustrations, articles and books in his wake. From photographing the post-Civil War expansion into the Western U.S. to publishing colorful art prints of people and scenes from around the world, Jackson was always prominent. His influence was felt by many and remains pervasive to this day, as he continues to be one of the most studied and written about of America's 19th century photographers.This bibliography has been an ongoing interest of Dr. Harrell's for many years and presents the scholarly and collecting world with an invaluable resource for understanding Jackson, the American West and the history of photography as reflected in Jackson's continual growth through changing technology and times. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A Wonderful Read of a Wonderful Man
A truly incredible diary kept by William Henry Jackson's good friend, Elwood Bonney during the last ten years of Jackson's ninety nine year life. The editor is astutely sensitive and the footnotes provide a great deal of information. One will learn more about Jackson through this book than any other. It would be fair to say that Jackson would agree with the latter statement as his opinions are expressed so well by Bonney. The friendship between the two will be coveted by the reader. ... Read more

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Horn Book Magazine, published by Horn Book, Inc. on March 1, 2000. The length of the article is 320 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Window on the West: The Frontier Photography of William Henry Jackson.(Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
Author: M.A.B.
Publication: The Horn Book Magazine (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 1, 2000
Publisher: Horn Book, Inc.
Volume: 76Issue: 2Page: 214

Article Type: Book Review, Young Adult Review, Brief Article

Distributed by Thompson Gale ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Interesting!
A great outlook of the life in the American West! ... Read more