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West of Last Chance
West of Last Chance is a unique collaboration between celebrated photographer Peter Brown and award-winning author Kent Haruf. The result is a profound visual/verbal dialogue of short prose pieces and large-format color images that brings to life this sometimes brutal and incredibly beautiful part of the country. Awarded the Dorothea Lange–Paul Taylor Prize by the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University for this project in 2005, the authors write: “Our interest in this part of the world is contemporary but also includes its history and a mix of stories that have passed down over the years, stories that resonate with the land in interesting ways.”
It is an evocative work concerned with “moments that describe the beauty, power, tragedy, and cultural complexity of the place itself: the way the land has been used, the way people have lived on it, and the visual record that has been left behind.”
It is an evocative work concerned with “moments that describe the beauty, power, tragedy, and cultural complexity of the place itself: the way the land has been used, the way people have lived on it, and the visual record that has been left behind.”
- GenresNonfictionPhotographyArt
256 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 2007
4 people are currently reading
781 people want to read
About the author
Peter T. Brown
4 booksPeter Brown has photographed the open landscape and small towns of the Great Plains for the past twenty-five years. He is the author of Seasons of Light, On the Plains and the recently published West of Last Chance, a collaboration with the novelist Kent Haruf which won the Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize. His work has been collected by The Menil Collection, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, MoMA New York, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Getty Museum and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art among others. He’s the recipient of an Individual Artist’s Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award, the Imogen Cunningham Award, and grants from the Graham Foundation and the Cultural Arts Council of Houston. His work has appeared in Harpers, DoubleTake, Life, PDN, PhotoIcon, The New Yorker, Aperture, American Photographer, Texas Monthly and other magazines. He has degrees in English and Art from Stanford University and teaches at the Glasscock School at Rice University where he recently won their inaugural teaching prize. He was named Photographer/Educator of the year by the Houston Center for Photography and lives in Houston with his wife Jill and daughter Caitlin.
His work can be seen at the Harris Gallery, Houston; Stephen L. Clark Gallery, Austin; Stephen Cohen Gallery, Los Angeles; PDNB Gallery, Dallas and Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto.
His work can be seen at the Harris Gallery, Houston; Stephen L. Clark Gallery, Austin; Stephen Cohen Gallery, Los Angeles; PDNB Gallery, Dallas and Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
March 21, 2023
A book of photography with short pieces written by one of my favourite authors, Kent Haruf.
“ You have to know how to look at this country. You have to slow down. It isn’t pretty, but it’s beautiful”
Kent Haruf and Peter Brown love the Great Plains. In this book, the photos capture its stark beauty, its harshness, its bleakness, its isolation, but also, its enigmatic landscapes and small towns.
The photographs taken by Peter Brown are absolutely stunning. Some of them did remind me of small town Alberta and the prairies here.
“ She was an old woman lived her life and died. And there was no one ever said she was pretty let alone beautiful. They buried her out at the north corner of Holt County across the fence from Otis Murray’s dry land cornfield. Her spirit, who can say- perhaps it found someone in the hereafter to love it, pay it some attention.”
If you appreciate looking at beautiful photographs of a stark landscape, you will certainly enjoy this book.
Published: 2008
“ You have to know how to look at this country. You have to slow down. It isn’t pretty, but it’s beautiful”
Kent Haruf and Peter Brown love the Great Plains. In this book, the photos capture its stark beauty, its harshness, its bleakness, its isolation, but also, its enigmatic landscapes and small towns.
The photographs taken by Peter Brown are absolutely stunning. Some of them did remind me of small town Alberta and the prairies here.
“ She was an old woman lived her life and died. And there was no one ever said she was pretty let alone beautiful. They buried her out at the north corner of Holt County across the fence from Otis Murray’s dry land cornfield. Her spirit, who can say- perhaps it found someone in the hereafter to love it, pay it some attention.”
If you appreciate looking at beautiful photographs of a stark landscape, you will certainly enjoy this book.
Published: 2008
April 9, 2023
A beautiful book allowing us to revisit the plains of Holt, Colorado through Peter Brown's photography, and the people through Kent Haruf's words.
The coffee table size book is heavy and unwieldy, the prose leaves you wanting more, but very much worth the effort in both cases.
The coffee table size book is heavy and unwieldy, the prose leaves you wanting more, but very much worth the effort in both cases.
February 16, 2019
"You have to know how to look at this country. You have to slow down. It isn't pretty, but it's beautiful"
This is a book of photography by Peter T. Brown and prose by Kent Haruf. The photos are stark and stunning. The more you look at them, the better the understanding you get of the people and places of The Great Plains. The stories/text by Kent Haruf are simply wonderful. What an extraordinary writer he was. I just can't say enough good things about him.
This is a book of photography by Peter T. Brown and prose by Kent Haruf. The photos are stark and stunning. The more you look at them, the better the understanding you get of the people and places of The Great Plains. The stories/text by Kent Haruf are simply wonderful. What an extraordinary writer he was. I just can't say enough good things about him.
April 15, 2026
I loved this book, which brought the landscape of Haruf's books to vivid life.
Why I'm reading this book: I learned about this coffee-table book from GR friends Diane and Antoinette. Having just finished Haruf's first two Plainsong books, I immediately ordered West of Last Chance from my library.
Why I'm reading this book: I learned about this coffee-table book from GR friends Diane and Antoinette. Having just finished Haruf's first two Plainsong books, I immediately ordered West of Last Chance from my library.
February 26, 2019
Reviewed on: Ashes Books & Bobs.
“You have to know how to look at this country. You have to slow down. It isn’t pretty, but it’s beautiful.”
No other quote has captured my feelings about my former home, Eastern Colorado, quite so clearly. It’s a landscape that made my stomach drop upon seeing it the first time. I was terrified of the life I was about to take on. There was literally nothing but land for mile upon mile. There aren’t stores or restaurants, no bookstores or libraries, especially in the area around Last Chance, Colorado. I don’t think many people in America can even imagine the level of rural this area boasts. Yet it is responsible for creating some of the best memories of my life. When there are no distractions around, people find time for what is truly important – other people. I formed some of my most cherished relationships in the humble places captured in these photographs.
When I read Kent Haruf’s book Our Souls at Night, I discovered all of his books are set in the area I lived in for five years before returning back to Texas. Upon further digging through his backlist, I came across this wonderful picture book of rural locations. Many photos were taken in Eastern Colorado or Texas, created by Haruf and his friend Peter T. Brown. When I saw the book cover, my stomach did a flip flop, the feeling of stumbling on a crazy coincidence. How could this book have been published before I even moved to this area, yet I’d never heard of it? A book that mentions an area I had to drive through to get to almost anywhere civilized. Last Chance, Colorado was 10 miles from my first home, the most rural of the three places I lived in Eastern Colorado. It was named Last Chance because it once was the last place to get gas for more than fifty miles in any direction. When I moved to Lindon, Colorado in 2008, Last Chance didn’t even have a gas station. Its name is no longer applicable, in fact, its name may only make you feel hopeless if you’re expecting to find a bite to eat or place to stretch your legs. There is a Port-a-Potty on the side of the road for travelers who anxiously await a bathroom break and a run-down, long-forgotten restaurant. I’ve explored this ghost town multiple times when I was actively pursuing a photography business, and the only signs of those last chance places are literal signs – old gas station signs parked behind a dilapidated old motel.
When I think about these places, I can see them vividly in my mind as if I’m still there. I long for the slow lifestyle I once knew and sometimes hated. Time feels as if it goes at warp speed everywhere else, as if I’m constantly on the clock to do more. In Eastern Colorado, time is all but irrelevant. In many ways, this area hasn’t changed in a hundred years. The past blends with the future and it’s easy to imagine a horse and buggy being pulled across the prairie. In fact, there is a place in particular where the old wagon road toward the Front Range that passed through the land can still be seen today.
Peter T. Brown and Kent Haruf captured the feelings and uniqueness of an area that I love more than just about any other place in the world. This land changed me in a pivotal way, in a way I can’t describe to anyone who hasn’t experienced it firsthand. However, this book comes close to telling the story. Though there are some inconsistencies – a few pictures are mislabeled with incorrect locations and some of the areas photographed are actually East of Last Chance, this book is a treasure I’m happy to own. If only for the sake of posterity. When I desire the simple life once more, I can easily flip through these pages to find familiar locations I’ve come to long for. I’m able to capture that feeling of peace, however how fleeting it might be.
“You have to know how to look at this country. You have to slow down. It isn’t pretty, but it’s beautiful.”
No other quote has captured my feelings about my former home, Eastern Colorado, quite so clearly. It’s a landscape that made my stomach drop upon seeing it the first time. I was terrified of the life I was about to take on. There was literally nothing but land for mile upon mile. There aren’t stores or restaurants, no bookstores or libraries, especially in the area around Last Chance, Colorado. I don’t think many people in America can even imagine the level of rural this area boasts. Yet it is responsible for creating some of the best memories of my life. When there are no distractions around, people find time for what is truly important – other people. I formed some of my most cherished relationships in the humble places captured in these photographs.
When I read Kent Haruf’s book Our Souls at Night, I discovered all of his books are set in the area I lived in for five years before returning back to Texas. Upon further digging through his backlist, I came across this wonderful picture book of rural locations. Many photos were taken in Eastern Colorado or Texas, created by Haruf and his friend Peter T. Brown. When I saw the book cover, my stomach did a flip flop, the feeling of stumbling on a crazy coincidence. How could this book have been published before I even moved to this area, yet I’d never heard of it? A book that mentions an area I had to drive through to get to almost anywhere civilized. Last Chance, Colorado was 10 miles from my first home, the most rural of the three places I lived in Eastern Colorado. It was named Last Chance because it once was the last place to get gas for more than fifty miles in any direction. When I moved to Lindon, Colorado in 2008, Last Chance didn’t even have a gas station. Its name is no longer applicable, in fact, its name may only make you feel hopeless if you’re expecting to find a bite to eat or place to stretch your legs. There is a Port-a-Potty on the side of the road for travelers who anxiously await a bathroom break and a run-down, long-forgotten restaurant. I’ve explored this ghost town multiple times when I was actively pursuing a photography business, and the only signs of those last chance places are literal signs – old gas station signs parked behind a dilapidated old motel.
When I think about these places, I can see them vividly in my mind as if I’m still there. I long for the slow lifestyle I once knew and sometimes hated. Time feels as if it goes at warp speed everywhere else, as if I’m constantly on the clock to do more. In Eastern Colorado, time is all but irrelevant. In many ways, this area hasn’t changed in a hundred years. The past blends with the future and it’s easy to imagine a horse and buggy being pulled across the prairie. In fact, there is a place in particular where the old wagon road toward the Front Range that passed through the land can still be seen today.
Peter T. Brown and Kent Haruf captured the feelings and uniqueness of an area that I love more than just about any other place in the world. This land changed me in a pivotal way, in a way I can’t describe to anyone who hasn’t experienced it firsthand. However, this book comes close to telling the story. Though there are some inconsistencies – a few pictures are mislabeled with incorrect locations and some of the areas photographed are actually East of Last Chance, this book is a treasure I’m happy to own. If only for the sake of posterity. When I desire the simple life once more, I can easily flip through these pages to find familiar locations I’ve come to long for. I’m able to capture that feeling of peace, however how fleeting it might be.
February 3, 2024
The World of the Great Plains! And Much More!
Credit should be also assigned to Author, Kent Haruf.
I ask you here not to shun this book because of its appearance as a mere entertainment to view pictures, nor because of its sizable heft. I hope that you will be attracted to it, in great part, because of the noted contribution of the much esteemed author, Kent Haruf. I had become enthralled by his writing years ago and have yearned greatly to read more since his untimely death 4 years previously. Much to my great pleasure, I discovered this gem in listings of his writing . It is not a linear novel, nor non-fiction, but strategically placed among the impressive photographs are anecdotes and meanderings, which only Haruf could so simply, yet elegantly express.
It would be negligent to ignore a major contribution of this book. It was the collaboration between skilled and renowned photographer, Peter Brown with Kent Haruf. It gained great acclaim and earned numerous deserved awards for their work. This bold and sometimes stark and bleak photography captures the history and geography of the Great Plains in a many varied visions. We view a variety of scenery- the darkening sky before a storm, the sparse, drought-laden landscape; lonely, lean cattle, ramshackle buildings; numerous crude roadside signs listing the far-distant inhabitants and so much more.
Interspersed with those pictures, Haruf has voiced musings and some humor to lend credence and depth to Brown's labors. Some are slight thoughts and others tell stories of existence in this hardscrabble land.
You have to know how to look at this country. You have to slow down. It isn't pretty, but it's beautiful. This impression lends a heartfelt view of our land and how it has been captured in this book.
As was usual with Haruf, one does not know if he was writing of actual people or events; but it is certain that he knew the land, he knew the country and he knew people! Occasionally, a note of humor would appear. He told of a hand- painted sign in a field of stubble stating, “ Speed Trap Six Miles Ahead”! The farmer who had erected this sign years ago had never again seen evidence of this claim, but he advised drivers to beware. This is a small example of the vignettes scattered so effectively throughout this book.
Credit should be also assigned to Author, Kent Haruf.
I ask you here not to shun this book because of its appearance as a mere entertainment to view pictures, nor because of its sizable heft. I hope that you will be attracted to it, in great part, because of the noted contribution of the much esteemed author, Kent Haruf. I had become enthralled by his writing years ago and have yearned greatly to read more since his untimely death 4 years previously. Much to my great pleasure, I discovered this gem in listings of his writing . It is not a linear novel, nor non-fiction, but strategically placed among the impressive photographs are anecdotes and meanderings, which only Haruf could so simply, yet elegantly express.
It would be negligent to ignore a major contribution of this book. It was the collaboration between skilled and renowned photographer, Peter Brown with Kent Haruf. It gained great acclaim and earned numerous deserved awards for their work. This bold and sometimes stark and bleak photography captures the history and geography of the Great Plains in a many varied visions. We view a variety of scenery- the darkening sky before a storm, the sparse, drought-laden landscape; lonely, lean cattle, ramshackle buildings; numerous crude roadside signs listing the far-distant inhabitants and so much more.
Interspersed with those pictures, Haruf has voiced musings and some humor to lend credence and depth to Brown's labors. Some are slight thoughts and others tell stories of existence in this hardscrabble land.
You have to know how to look at this country. You have to slow down. It isn't pretty, but it's beautiful. This impression lends a heartfelt view of our land and how it has been captured in this book.
As was usual with Haruf, one does not know if he was writing of actual people or events; but it is certain that he knew the land, he knew the country and he knew people! Occasionally, a note of humor would appear. He told of a hand- painted sign in a field of stubble stating, “ Speed Trap Six Miles Ahead”! The farmer who had erected this sign years ago had never again seen evidence of this claim, but he advised drivers to beware. This is a small example of the vignettes scattered so effectively throughout this book.
November 11, 2017
Kent told stories with only a few sentences.The writing was emotional and the accompanying photos made this magical.Sublime.
May 1, 2012
Glad to see so many readers have already found this book. It's an unsentimental but loving portrait of the High Plains, from West Texas north to the Dakotas. Brown's photographs show a (former) prairie now cultivated and overgrazed, often with the blasted look of early spring when trees are barely in leaf and the earth seems still in shock from the extremes of the previous winter.
There's a balance between photos of vast flat landscapes and distant horizons under endless skies and shots of small-town store fronts, often with quirky signage, e.g. the dance hall in Merriman, Nebraska, with a small sign at one corner pointing to the "South Entrance." Towns and landscapes alike are depopulated; maybe a single person walks, stands or sits somewhere in the frame, giving the impression of social isolation. Lacking captions (the locations of all photos are listed at the back), these images force you to look more deeply into them for what there is to be seen and comprehended. I liked that.
The minimal text supplied by author Haruf, however, is often about interactions between people - early settlers and modern-day inhabitants. The account of the football game in sub-freezing temperatures is a brilliant short-short story. As a former resident of the plains, just east of the 100th meridian, I can attest to the veracity of everything that Brown and Haruf have included in this wonderful book.
There's a balance between photos of vast flat landscapes and distant horizons under endless skies and shots of small-town store fronts, often with quirky signage, e.g. the dance hall in Merriman, Nebraska, with a small sign at one corner pointing to the "South Entrance." Towns and landscapes alike are depopulated; maybe a single person walks, stands or sits somewhere in the frame, giving the impression of social isolation. Lacking captions (the locations of all photos are listed at the back), these images force you to look more deeply into them for what there is to be seen and comprehended. I liked that.
The minimal text supplied by author Haruf, however, is often about interactions between people - early settlers and modern-day inhabitants. The account of the football game in sub-freezing temperatures is a brilliant short-short story. As a former resident of the plains, just east of the 100th meridian, I can attest to the veracity of everything that Brown and Haruf have included in this wonderful book.
January 26, 2018
Fascinating photography by Peter Brown and, as always, wonderful stories/text by Kent Haruf. This beautiful and honest book contains hundreds of photographs from the Great Plains area -- inc. pics from Texas, Nebraska, Colorado, South Dakota, New Mexico, Wyoming and Kansas. Part I contains the quote: "You have to know how to look at this country. You have to slow down. It isn't pretty, but it's beautiful." This book offers one extraordinary way to look at the part of the country they are showing us. I'm not entirely sure whether Haruf's writing throughout the book, accompanying some of the pictures, is truth or fiction -- but either way, he tells the brief stories in his homey, evocative, perfectly descriptive way -- whether in two sentences of dialogue or a page of paragraphs. He tells of a football game in the bitter cold and snow that an entire town attends, a church supper, a date, one definition of a good life, and so much more. If you are a fan of Haruf's novels or photography generally, I highly recommend this book. (Per the inside flap, in 2005, the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University awarded the Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor prize to Brown and Haruf for this work in progress - called "High Plains" at that time.)
August 30, 2022
Lovely. This “coffee table book”, as my husband called it when I picked it up from the library, doesn’t take long to read but hits just the right tone of what life is like on the high plains. I’m reading all of Kent Haruf’s books this summer and this one is just a few vignettes that evoke the culture his novels are steeped in, set in a fictional small rural town in eastern Colorado. I just love his words. The photos are splendid, also, and likewise highly evocative of place.
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August 19, 2018
This "coffee table" volume is a collection of stunning photographs of the American Midwest -- that area west of the Mississippi and east of the Rocky Mountains, sometimes derisively called "flyover country". Many of the photographs are accompanied by vignettes or one-liners written by Kent Haruf.
Many of Brown's photographs show man-made structures that are slowly being eaten up by the powerful natural forces of this vast landscape -- abandoned homesteads, decaying fences, empty commercial buildings cowering under relentless sun and wind. Others seem designed to remind the viewer just how insubstantial human beings are in the scheme of things -- vast, flat horizons, towering cloud formations, a lone tree in the midst of a browning field. And still others -- the character studies of the people who hang on in this landscape, regardless, have the humor and grit reflected in Haruf's short, often enigmatic contributions.
Readers familiar with Haruf's hand-hewn fiction via novels like "Plainsong" and "Eventide" will immediately recognize the voice and the characters here. Although the Haruf material is new, created specifically for this project, much of it feels like it was lifted from one of his stories: "She was an old woman lived her life and died. And there was no one ever said she was pretty let alone beautiful."
You can flip through this book in a couple of hours. But chances are, you'll want to go back again and again.
Many of Brown's photographs show man-made structures that are slowly being eaten up by the powerful natural forces of this vast landscape -- abandoned homesteads, decaying fences, empty commercial buildings cowering under relentless sun and wind. Others seem designed to remind the viewer just how insubstantial human beings are in the scheme of things -- vast, flat horizons, towering cloud formations, a lone tree in the midst of a browning field. And still others -- the character studies of the people who hang on in this landscape, regardless, have the humor and grit reflected in Haruf's short, often enigmatic contributions.
Readers familiar with Haruf's hand-hewn fiction via novels like "Plainsong" and "Eventide" will immediately recognize the voice and the characters here. Although the Haruf material is new, created specifically for this project, much of it feels like it was lifted from one of his stories: "She was an old woman lived her life and died. And there was no one ever said she was pretty let alone beautiful."
You can flip through this book in a couple of hours. But chances are, you'll want to go back again and again.
July 27, 2013
I love, love, love Kent Haruf and I loved this book of photographs and memories and vignettes about life on the Plains. So simple. Powerful. Moving. Ended it with tears in my eyes, the kind that come from having read something just beautiful. Loved it. A treasure. Please write another novel soon!!!
November 28, 2010
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news...
Plains inspire unique book
By Jenny Shank , Special to the Rocky
Published March 7, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.
Peter Brown, left, and Kent Haruf collaborated on the book, mingling Brown's photographs with Haruf's brief writings about the high plains.
Kent Haruf and Peter Brown take the high plains as their muse. Nowhere is that more evident than in their new book, West of Last Chance (Norton, $49.95), a unique collaboration mingling Brown's evocative photographs with Haruf's brief writings depicting life on the high plains.
Brown, a teacher, author and award-winning artist, has been photographing the plains for more than 25 years. Haruf is the acclaimed author of Plainsong, Eventide and other novels set in fictional Holt, based on the eastern Colorado towns where he grew up.
The two met at a reading Haruf gave in Houston in 1999 when Brown presented the author with a copy of his book of photography, On the Plains. Haruf later wrote that he "was so taken by the beauty and clarity of the photographs that I asked my publisher to hire him to take a photograph for the cover of my next book." The men soon forged a friendship.
They spoke to the Rocky in advance of several book-signings. (The interview has been edited for space reasons.)
Can you explain the themes of each section in West of Last Chance?
Haruf: There's a narrative arc to this book. It begins with the land and the landscape, and as I write, "You have to know how to look at this country. You have to slow down. It isn't pretty, but it's beautiful."
Every article I've read about this book has quoted that line.
Haruf: Well, it's true. You can't see it unless you slow down. You have to change the way you look at the land.
If you're expecting to see aspen or Longs Peak or something, that's not what this book is about. The book is about slowing down and finding what is of value and significance once you've done that. So it begins with the land, then it moves into Native Americans. We start with the massacre at Sand Creek, and the beautiful photographs give a kind of modern uptake on that . . .
(Then) it touches on some of the devastation that has been done to the land, and then there's a sort of lyrical entry into towns. It's as if we were coming in from outside into the town, what that looks like from a distance . . . It closes by going to church, talking about church suppers. We thought it would be too soft and sentimental to end in church, so it pulls away from that and ends back on the land. There's an arc, but there's also kind of a circle.
Why did you decide not to make that narrative explicit?
Haruf: We wanted to see if people like you would figure it out. We had talked about having an introduction, but we gave up that idea because we decided it was unnecessary and intrusive.
What did you tell the people you photographed?
Brown: Generally I just show up with this big camera. This is an old, wooden Deardorff camera made in 1951, which is an attraction in itself. So they're interested in that, and I just talk to them about what I'm up to, and it follows from there.
When you go to an area to photograph, do you have a plan?
Brown: A lot of it is intuitive. That's one of the things I like best about photography, that it's a process of discovery. When I meet people, I usually ask them if there's some place that would be interesting to photograph. I arrive at a little town or someplace in the plains, and someone will come up and start talking, and they will direct me. Half of the time I won't be able to find wherever it is that they are suggesting, but in that process I will find something else. Then I worked with Kent and tried to put the photographs and the text together. While I was photographing, I also had Kent's texts quite often in the back of my mind.
It must have been fun to write these pieces - they're so free.
Haruf: I don't know if I'd use the word fun, but they were a very different kind of writing than what I normally do when I'm writing a novel. I would get up in the morning sometimes in a pre-waking state, and some of these images and thoughts would come to me and I would write them down. A few of them came that way. Others I did in a more deliberate way.
But I guess I'd have to say it was an easier kind of writing for me to do than to write concentrated fiction, something that resembles literature.
There's an empty feeling to a lot of what you depict - many of the buildings on main streets are shuttered. Does that reflect what you perceived, or are there places where the population is returning?
Brown: My sense of the plains is that there are towns that will continue to do well, but most of those little towns are fairly shuttered up and the population is moving away. I think there are people who are coming in, but it's a hard life out there, no question about it.
What do you think will happen to these little towns?
Haruf: I don't know if I can make a generalization about that, but I know that some towns are decreasing in population because the farms are getting larger, and so it requires fewer people to farm them. . . . Also, if a community loses its high school, that town is going to dry up pretty quickly. High schools are what keep these communities going. They rally around their high schools, and that's part of why athletics are so important in these little towns.
In this book there is a section about a football game, and that's not by accident. That's an attempt on our part to suggest the importance of high schools and athletics to small towns. It's very easy to be cynical about that, but on the other hand, if something brings a community together and unites them in any fashion that's not destructive or violent, that's a good thing, that's a virtue. And that's what happens in these little towns.
What's also happening in agriculture generally, and is certainly true in eastern Colorado, is big feed lots are being developed, big dairies, huge confined hog operations. Those are not, in my view, healthy changes.
Working in those places, like confined hog operations - that job is incredibly awful. The stench to begin with, the working conditions, what you're doing to animals. All those things are horrific. Most Caucasian Americans don't want to do that kind of work. So that's attracted a number of people from Mexico, some of them legal, some of them not. I'm not saying immigration is bad; I feel just the opposite. But it's still horrific to think that anybody is going to have to work in those kind of conditions . . .
Also, gasohol is now a big deal out there. It's increased the depletion of the aquifer because it takes water to grow corn to make gasohol. So there are these kinds of environmental and ecological changes occurring on the plains that are not helping, in my view.
Have you two influenced each other's art?
Brown: I don't presume to influence Kent. He is one of the most visual novelists - it's just incredible. I don't read anyone any more slowly than I do Kent. I savor every word, and each phrase sparks up a more complex set of visions.
Haruf: For me, the visual details are the most important. So I recognized immediately the quality of Peter's photographs, and the clarity and absence of sentimentality that I see too often in photographs. . . I don't know if we've been influential to each other or not, but I certainly admire the quality of his photographs.
Jenny Shank is a Boulder author who writes about books for NewWest.net. Her novel "Mile High" was a semifinalist for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award competition.
Kent Haruf and Peter Brown
* What: Appear at 7:30 p.m. today at the Tattered Cover in LoDo, 1628 16th St., and 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Boulder Book Store, 1107 Pearl St.
* Cost: Free
* Information: 303-436-1070 for Tattered Cover; 303-447-2074 for Boulder Book Store.
* The public is also invited to a free hour of drinks and snacks at Rockmount Ranch Wear, 1626 Wazee, at 5 p.m. today, prior to the Tattered Cover event.
Plains inspire unique book
By Jenny Shank , Special to the Rocky
Published March 7, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.
Peter Brown, left, and Kent Haruf collaborated on the book, mingling Brown's photographs with Haruf's brief writings about the high plains.
Kent Haruf and Peter Brown take the high plains as their muse. Nowhere is that more evident than in their new book, West of Last Chance (Norton, $49.95), a unique collaboration mingling Brown's evocative photographs with Haruf's brief writings depicting life on the high plains.
Brown, a teacher, author and award-winning artist, has been photographing the plains for more than 25 years. Haruf is the acclaimed author of Plainsong, Eventide and other novels set in fictional Holt, based on the eastern Colorado towns where he grew up.
The two met at a reading Haruf gave in Houston in 1999 when Brown presented the author with a copy of his book of photography, On the Plains. Haruf later wrote that he "was so taken by the beauty and clarity of the photographs that I asked my publisher to hire him to take a photograph for the cover of my next book." The men soon forged a friendship.
They spoke to the Rocky in advance of several book-signings. (The interview has been edited for space reasons.)
Can you explain the themes of each section in West of Last Chance?
Haruf: There's a narrative arc to this book. It begins with the land and the landscape, and as I write, "You have to know how to look at this country. You have to slow down. It isn't pretty, but it's beautiful."
Every article I've read about this book has quoted that line.
Haruf: Well, it's true. You can't see it unless you slow down. You have to change the way you look at the land.
If you're expecting to see aspen or Longs Peak or something, that's not what this book is about. The book is about slowing down and finding what is of value and significance once you've done that. So it begins with the land, then it moves into Native Americans. We start with the massacre at Sand Creek, and the beautiful photographs give a kind of modern uptake on that . . .
(Then) it touches on some of the devastation that has been done to the land, and then there's a sort of lyrical entry into towns. It's as if we were coming in from outside into the town, what that looks like from a distance . . . It closes by going to church, talking about church suppers. We thought it would be too soft and sentimental to end in church, so it pulls away from that and ends back on the land. There's an arc, but there's also kind of a circle.
Why did you decide not to make that narrative explicit?
Haruf: We wanted to see if people like you would figure it out. We had talked about having an introduction, but we gave up that idea because we decided it was unnecessary and intrusive.
What did you tell the people you photographed?
Brown: Generally I just show up with this big camera. This is an old, wooden Deardorff camera made in 1951, which is an attraction in itself. So they're interested in that, and I just talk to them about what I'm up to, and it follows from there.
When you go to an area to photograph, do you have a plan?
Brown: A lot of it is intuitive. That's one of the things I like best about photography, that it's a process of discovery. When I meet people, I usually ask them if there's some place that would be interesting to photograph. I arrive at a little town or someplace in the plains, and someone will come up and start talking, and they will direct me. Half of the time I won't be able to find wherever it is that they are suggesting, but in that process I will find something else. Then I worked with Kent and tried to put the photographs and the text together. While I was photographing, I also had Kent's texts quite often in the back of my mind.
It must have been fun to write these pieces - they're so free.
Haruf: I don't know if I'd use the word fun, but they were a very different kind of writing than what I normally do when I'm writing a novel. I would get up in the morning sometimes in a pre-waking state, and some of these images and thoughts would come to me and I would write them down. A few of them came that way. Others I did in a more deliberate way.
But I guess I'd have to say it was an easier kind of writing for me to do than to write concentrated fiction, something that resembles literature.
There's an empty feeling to a lot of what you depict - many of the buildings on main streets are shuttered. Does that reflect what you perceived, or are there places where the population is returning?
Brown: My sense of the plains is that there are towns that will continue to do well, but most of those little towns are fairly shuttered up and the population is moving away. I think there are people who are coming in, but it's a hard life out there, no question about it.
What do you think will happen to these little towns?
Haruf: I don't know if I can make a generalization about that, but I know that some towns are decreasing in population because the farms are getting larger, and so it requires fewer people to farm them. . . . Also, if a community loses its high school, that town is going to dry up pretty quickly. High schools are what keep these communities going. They rally around their high schools, and that's part of why athletics are so important in these little towns.
In this book there is a section about a football game, and that's not by accident. That's an attempt on our part to suggest the importance of high schools and athletics to small towns. It's very easy to be cynical about that, but on the other hand, if something brings a community together and unites them in any fashion that's not destructive or violent, that's a good thing, that's a virtue. And that's what happens in these little towns.
What's also happening in agriculture generally, and is certainly true in eastern Colorado, is big feed lots are being developed, big dairies, huge confined hog operations. Those are not, in my view, healthy changes.
Working in those places, like confined hog operations - that job is incredibly awful. The stench to begin with, the working conditions, what you're doing to animals. All those things are horrific. Most Caucasian Americans don't want to do that kind of work. So that's attracted a number of people from Mexico, some of them legal, some of them not. I'm not saying immigration is bad; I feel just the opposite. But it's still horrific to think that anybody is going to have to work in those kind of conditions . . .
Also, gasohol is now a big deal out there. It's increased the depletion of the aquifer because it takes water to grow corn to make gasohol. So there are these kinds of environmental and ecological changes occurring on the plains that are not helping, in my view.
Have you two influenced each other's art?
Brown: I don't presume to influence Kent. He is one of the most visual novelists - it's just incredible. I don't read anyone any more slowly than I do Kent. I savor every word, and each phrase sparks up a more complex set of visions.
Haruf: For me, the visual details are the most important. So I recognized immediately the quality of Peter's photographs, and the clarity and absence of sentimentality that I see too often in photographs. . . I don't know if we've been influential to each other or not, but I certainly admire the quality of his photographs.
Jenny Shank is a Boulder author who writes about books for NewWest.net. Her novel "Mile High" was a semifinalist for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award competition.
Kent Haruf and Peter Brown
* What: Appear at 7:30 p.m. today at the Tattered Cover in LoDo, 1628 16th St., and 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Boulder Book Store, 1107 Pearl St.
* Cost: Free
* Information: 303-436-1070 for Tattered Cover; 303-447-2074 for Boulder Book Store.
* The public is also invited to a free hour of drinks and snacks at Rockmount Ranch Wear, 1626 Wazee, at 5 p.m. today, prior to the Tattered Cover event.
February 3, 2024
Kent Haruf is one of my favorite authors and I always feel a selfish longing when I think of his passing in 2014 because I would love to have more of his novels to read. At 71, his life was cut too short for his loved ones; his literary life was cut too short for his readers.
When West of Last Chance came across my Goodreads feed (thank you, Diane!) last year, I immediately set out to find a copy.
"A book of photographs and prose about the High Plains," as Haruf described it in the Afterword. This is such a gorgeous collaboration. I originally bought it for the prose, but I soon fell in love with the photography, as well. The photographs were taken from the mid-1980s through 2006, making them sort of a time capsule. It was a fascinating visual experience for me. I would have preferred the photographs to have their location and date accompany the pictures instead of at the back of the book in a "List of Photographs" because I was constantly referring back to this reference.
In the closing words of Kent Haruf about his working with Peter T. Brown on this collaboration:
...arriving at a book, we hoped, that would show as clearly as we felt in our deep and abiding, unsentimental affection for the High Plains and its various people-out of the years of our experience of this exact place in America and out of the hours of our thoughts and wonder about it.
When West of Last Chance came across my Goodreads feed (thank you, Diane!) last year, I immediately set out to find a copy.
"A book of photographs and prose about the High Plains," as Haruf described it in the Afterword. This is such a gorgeous collaboration. I originally bought it for the prose, but I soon fell in love with the photography, as well. The photographs were taken from the mid-1980s through 2006, making them sort of a time capsule. It was a fascinating visual experience for me. I would have preferred the photographs to have their location and date accompany the pictures instead of at the back of the book in a "List of Photographs" because I was constantly referring back to this reference.
In the closing words of Kent Haruf about his working with Peter T. Brown on this collaboration:
...arriving at a book, we hoped, that would show as clearly as we felt in our deep and abiding, unsentimental affection for the High Plains and its various people-out of the years of our experience of this exact place in America and out of the hours of our thoughts and wonder about it.
September 5, 2019
Kent Haruf's simplistic, insightful prose, combined with Peter Brown's beautiful photographs, perfectly capture the essence of small-town life on the high plains, from driving on a desolate stretch of highway through a storm, to a high school championship football game on a snowy Saturday afternoon in November, to a humble church supper. The images and accompanying words evoke a familiar sentiment.
September 24, 2019
I barrelled through Haruf’s novels earlier this year, and was thankful there was still one left to read. I had to get this through an interlibrary loan, and it was worth the wait. Peter T. Brown’s photographs and Kent Haruf’s words go so perfectly together. I read it fairly quickly, taking time with the images but turning the page to get more and more. This is one I’ll definitely re-read later, hopefully with my own copy, and really let the photos and stories sink into my mind.
Read
December 23, 2023A one word review, at least of the pictures in this book, is "stark". If you kick it up to three words, "stark, but beautiful". I found Haruf's writing as enjoyable in these shorter paragraphs as his novels. The pages start with barren landscape, and almost as barren writing, but you start to see and read more detail as you go through. I enjoyed the church story near the end the best, and it's also the most fully drawn and longest.
September 4, 2020
A tribute to photos of the High Plains accompanied by Kent Haruf's writing. The best combination if you enjoy Haruf's stories and like seeing the High Plains, small towns and ordinary people in photos.
May 27, 2017
Beautiful, inspiring, quiet.
August 25, 2018
I bought this book (half-off, hardcover).
The books is almost all large photos of the plains and old towns.
The prose by Kent Haruf is nice, but the photos are nice, but boring.
The books is almost all large photos of the plains and old towns.
The prose by Kent Haruf is nice, but the photos are nice, but boring.
January 5, 2020
So beautiful! It makes me want to reread Kent Haruf's novels.
March 25, 2023
Photography hits spot on for the western plains of America. The written narration compliments the photos and was an enjoyable read.
June 12, 2023
The photos are wonderful. Inspired me to pull all of the photos I have taken of Eastern Colorado to create my own "collection".
May 8, 2024
This book is everything to me .
February 6, 2017
Enchanting and honest to the Midwestern and Western way of life.
June 3, 2008
“You have to know how to look at this country. You have to slow down. It isn’t pretty, but it’s beautiful.” Page 12
In West of Last Chance you not only get to see pages of the beauty of the plains taken by Peter Brown, but catch snippets of Kent Haruf prose on county life. The pictures span the country showing scenes from Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Each picture tells its own story, but also follow the grander theme of the book, which I think is country life. Scenes show every facet from farmers watching darkening skies to small town main streets. Haruf’s narrative vignettes embody living the simple life such as enjoying a trip to the library and trying figure out how do deal with the hardships that have been dealt.
This would be the ultimate coffee table book, as it would get picked up time and again. Each time one picks it up a different set of images catches one’s eye. One of the best features of the pictures and narrative is that they let the images capture the stark beauty of the land without taking anything away from them. Brown’s images and Haruf’s words maintain poignant play as if singing in harmony.
One draw back is that like contemporary art books the photo credits are at the back of the book. Flipping to the back to see where the photos are taken is more than distracting than if the credits would have been placed under the photos. But this book is definitely worth a flip through; one might even see a place one recognizes. Check it out!
In West of Last Chance you not only get to see pages of the beauty of the plains taken by Peter Brown, but catch snippets of Kent Haruf prose on county life. The pictures span the country showing scenes from Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Each picture tells its own story, but also follow the grander theme of the book, which I think is country life. Scenes show every facet from farmers watching darkening skies to small town main streets. Haruf’s narrative vignettes embody living the simple life such as enjoying a trip to the library and trying figure out how do deal with the hardships that have been dealt.
This would be the ultimate coffee table book, as it would get picked up time and again. Each time one picks it up a different set of images catches one’s eye. One of the best features of the pictures and narrative is that they let the images capture the stark beauty of the land without taking anything away from them. Brown’s images and Haruf’s words maintain poignant play as if singing in harmony.
One draw back is that like contemporary art books the photo credits are at the back of the book. Flipping to the back to see where the photos are taken is more than distracting than if the credits would have been placed under the photos. But this book is definitely worth a flip through; one might even see a place one recognizes. Check it out!
July 9, 2008
Its refreshing to get away from the world of best sellers and enter the world I am personally more familiar with, the day to day lives in that thin world between the 98th meridian and the Rockies. That world was, on early maps of the United States, called "The Great American Desert". Later consideration determined that that flat, treeless, waterless stretch of semi-arid land which stretches from the southern border of Texas to the northern borders of North Dakota and Montana, was the Great Plains. It was made famous by the cattle drives which meandered up and down from Texas up into Alberta and Saskatchewan, and the stories of the cowboys who rode those drives. The most noted point on those drives was Dodge City, Kansas, of Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp fame.
People still live on the Plains. I was born, grew up on, was educated on, and lived basically my entire adult life upon them. For 35 of the last 36 years I served as a pastor in squalid ELCA parishes from Garden City, Kansas, to Cando, North Dakota. I love the Plains and its rugged people.
This book, photos by Peter Brown and commentary by Kent Haruf, is a magnificent coffee table work. The photos capture pieces of life on the Plains, and the commentary, wry, unadorned, and straight, like the people themselves, left me feeling as if I had just put on the perfect pair of cowboy boots.
Great Plains local color does that to me.
People still live on the Plains. I was born, grew up on, was educated on, and lived basically my entire adult life upon them. For 35 of the last 36 years I served as a pastor in squalid ELCA parishes from Garden City, Kansas, to Cando, North Dakota. I love the Plains and its rugged people.
This book, photos by Peter Brown and commentary by Kent Haruf, is a magnificent coffee table work. The photos capture pieces of life on the Plains, and the commentary, wry, unadorned, and straight, like the people themselves, left me feeling as if I had just put on the perfect pair of cowboy boots.
Great Plains local color does that to me.
January 28, 2016
This outstanding photography book of the Great Plains is a collaboration of two talents- Peter Brown's magnificent photographs and Kent Haruf's down-home prose. Brown's pictures, and the order in which they are in the book, tell a narrative, while Haruf's writing is paired with some of the pictures and his stories match well. As a fan of his "Plainsong" trilogy of books, I would recognize his writing style anywhere. One phrase stood out "You have to know how to look at this country. You have to slow down, It isn't pretty, but it's beautiful" (pg12). Very true words, and Brown's photographs bear witness to that. The stark treeless plains might seem barren to some, but they are filled with a dignity and unique beauty. Brown also includes the people and towns that populate the plains, and the window he gives to their lives and community is a Valentine to that region. Definitely a book you will leaf through again and again. An interview with Peter Brown with some background on the making of WOLC: http://www.landscapestories.net/inter...
February 11, 2008
Monday, March 10, 2008, at 7:30pm at the Boulder Book Store.
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