Within the Stone

by Bill Atkinson (Photographer)

Mac guru Bill Atkinson shoots pictures of cut and polished rock slabs, transmuting them into masterpieces of "found" art with his high-resolution scanning camera and innovative color management techniques. For "Within the Stone," Atkinson picks 72 rock images for their evocative painterly qualities. Seven eminent poets and science writers, including Diane Ackerman and John Horgan, take turns responding to each image as a dream, landscape, seduction, or excogitative stimulus. In an appendix, three mineralogists describe each specimen's provenience, geological setting, and mineral composition. "A beautiful work of art." "Gems & Gemology." "Abstract masterpieces." "Popular Photography." "Revelations of the inner beauty of rocks." "PC Photo" "High tech meets timeless beauty." "Lapidary Journal." "Apple's soft ware star turns his code into art." "Macworld" Winner of 2004 Gold Ink Award, American Photo Best Photo Book of 2004

179 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2004

About the author

William Dana Atkinson was an American computer engineer, computer programmer and photographer. Atkinson worked at Apple Computer from 1978 to 1990. Some of Atkinson's noteworthy contributions to the field of computing include Macintosh QuickDraw and Lisa LisaGraf (Atkinson independently discovered the midpoint circle algorithm for fast drawing of circles by using the sum of consecutive odd numbers), Marching ants, the Menu bar, the selection lasso, MacPaint (FatBits), HyperCard, Atkinson dithering, and the app PhotoCard.

Reviews

[Steven Hargrove · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is really NOT by Diane Ackerman. It is a photographic exploration of the beauty of small details in rocks and minerals by the seminal photographer Bill Atkinson, who was a pioneer computer programmer in the early days of Apple (he was the 100th person employed by them), having developed programs like Paint. The photos are paired with poems and essays by noted writers, hence the "by Diane Ackerman" in the tracing. A stunning piece of work. He continues to do this work and stunning landscapes as well. Visit him at www.billatkinson.com.