What do you think?
Rate this book
Horizons
The horizon has been ever-present in Craig Blacklock's work, but in this book, he reduces the image to the simple division of sky and water. Horizons The horizon has been ever present in Craig Blacklock’s photography and wilderness travels since 1984. Here, Blacklock sets up his 4×5 camera on the cliff tops above Lake Superior at dawn and dusk, distills and records the evanescent magic of light and weather over water. The resulting 68 photographs emphasize luminosity, hue and texture. Many seem more akin to modern painting than traditional photography..
96 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 2002
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 16, 2022
Beautiful and calming.
This book is for both the everyday horizon appreciatist, and true photographers.
Blacklock's preface fascinated me with his mixture of story and descriptions of colors, textures, compositions, and ideas on editing. He perfectly balances speaking with the eye of an artist ("The relative proportions of sky and water would alter the feelings of weight, space, even the angle of planes. Textures within the fields, be they clouds in the sky, waves or even ice on the water would be the wind-woven canvas carrying the color gradient of the sky."), with descriptions of his travels on Lake Superior and how they inspired his interest in the horizons. I was fascinated with his telling of a 9 mile kayak crossing on Lake Superior with his wife, when a sudden downpour made it nearly impossible to see. I began to get the sense of a "lost in the wilderness/open ocean" survival story, when he suddenly said "For experienced kayakers [like them]...these conditions were pleasant"! I couldn't have been more shocked and relieved at once. It takes a real braving of nature's elements to truely appreciate the "fluid.. and shifting horizon."
Blacklock doesn't bog you down with camera and photography talk in his introduction, but simply conveys his passion for photography, his eye for it, and how his mind works when he looks upon a horizon. It is a perfect and inviting preface for those both amateur and professional. It built up my understanding and anticipation for the images, and I wholly enjoyed it.
And as for the photographs-- the whole reason for this book: Absolutely beautiful. They are soft, captivating, evanescent, transcendent, and calming. Blacklock organized them into 11 gallery exhibition groups based on either contrasts or similarities, to either make colors pop or force the eye to question the differences. I found this so exciting to search for. With each gallery I understood why Blacklock had placed those photographs together, whether it was based on cloud similarities, similarities in water textures (despite their states of matter), striations, pastel colors, or similar compositions and angles. I really appreciated his eye for it.
Having read the preface, I was fascinated and excited to get to Gallery VII featuring the most similar images (6 blue foggy horizons). As he said, it made me search out the differences. It's as if they are a sequence of moments one after the other. In some images, I can barely make out the horizon at all. It's a challenge. They are simply soft, foggy, comforting horizons I can't fully grasp the meeting of land and sky in. A mix of abstract art and real world photography. I loved it.
I can't quite say which photo is my favorite because I jumped back and forth quite a bit. But I will say the cover photo is what caught my eye to begin with. An absolutely beautiful meeting of pastels, soft clouds, and the moon. A truly calming photograph experience. I loved it.
"Here, Blacklock sets up his 4x5 camera on cliff tops at dawn and dusk, recording the evanescent magic of light and weather over water. The resulting sixty-eight photographs emphasize luminosity, hue and texture."
"In our over-populated world, to gaze out at hundreds of square miles of unoccupied space, even for a few moments, allows us to catch our breath. From atop a cliff, the horizon is not an arbitrary line, but a place we can fix our eyes in wonder and awe, and dream." ☾ ✰ ♡
This book is for both the everyday horizon appreciatist, and true photographers.
Blacklock's preface fascinated me with his mixture of story and descriptions of colors, textures, compositions, and ideas on editing. He perfectly balances speaking with the eye of an artist ("The relative proportions of sky and water would alter the feelings of weight, space, even the angle of planes. Textures within the fields, be they clouds in the sky, waves or even ice on the water would be the wind-woven canvas carrying the color gradient of the sky."), with descriptions of his travels on Lake Superior and how they inspired his interest in the horizons. I was fascinated with his telling of a 9 mile kayak crossing on Lake Superior with his wife, when a sudden downpour made it nearly impossible to see. I began to get the sense of a "lost in the wilderness/open ocean" survival story, when he suddenly said "For experienced kayakers [like them]...these conditions were pleasant"! I couldn't have been more shocked and relieved at once. It takes a real braving of nature's elements to truely appreciate the "fluid.. and shifting horizon."
Blacklock doesn't bog you down with camera and photography talk in his introduction, but simply conveys his passion for photography, his eye for it, and how his mind works when he looks upon a horizon. It is a perfect and inviting preface for those both amateur and professional. It built up my understanding and anticipation for the images, and I wholly enjoyed it.
And as for the photographs-- the whole reason for this book: Absolutely beautiful. They are soft, captivating, evanescent, transcendent, and calming. Blacklock organized them into 11 gallery exhibition groups based on either contrasts or similarities, to either make colors pop or force the eye to question the differences. I found this so exciting to search for. With each gallery I understood why Blacklock had placed those photographs together, whether it was based on cloud similarities, similarities in water textures (despite their states of matter), striations, pastel colors, or similar compositions and angles. I really appreciated his eye for it.
Having read the preface, I was fascinated and excited to get to Gallery VII featuring the most similar images (6 blue foggy horizons). As he said, it made me search out the differences. It's as if they are a sequence of moments one after the other. In some images, I can barely make out the horizon at all. It's a challenge. They are simply soft, foggy, comforting horizons I can't fully grasp the meeting of land and sky in. A mix of abstract art and real world photography. I loved it.
I can't quite say which photo is my favorite because I jumped back and forth quite a bit. But I will say the cover photo is what caught my eye to begin with. An absolutely beautiful meeting of pastels, soft clouds, and the moon. A truly calming photograph experience. I loved it.
"Here, Blacklock sets up his 4x5 camera on cliff tops at dawn and dusk, recording the evanescent magic of light and weather over water. The resulting sixty-eight photographs emphasize luminosity, hue and texture."
"In our over-populated world, to gaze out at hundreds of square miles of unoccupied space, even for a few moments, allows us to catch our breath. From atop a cliff, the horizon is not an arbitrary line, but a place we can fix our eyes in wonder and awe, and dream." ☾ ✰ ♡
September 26, 2012
signed copy
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews