Plateau Light

by David Muench, James Lawrence

This magical glimpse of the Southwest as seen by master photographer David Muench offers intriguing insights into his creative process.

116 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1998

Reviews

[J.D. Steens · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of Colorado Plateau photos is about rock, color and captions. Red rock and color, in varying shades, dominate these pictures. If you love this country, the pictures are terrific. The unusual part of this collection are the captions. While a few struck me as forced or I didn’t understand, these too are great-got the essence of each picture, in a nutshell.

Here and there are pertinent, simple one-liners on what draws Muench to this country. After looking at the pictures, reading the captions and his reflections, I opted not to read the accompanying essay by James Lawrence. Words, thoughts, didn’t fit the mood.

While looking at this book I had listened to an essay on PBS, a travel writer (Russell Banks) who “left his camera at home” thirty years ago because, he felt, “visually recording an experience would effectively remove him from it.” The tone seemed disdainful of picture taking in general. This stood in contrast to Muench’s statement that “Any photograph is a journey in perception, an exploration in seeing.”