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<\/a>In a Rugged Land: Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, and the Three Mormon Towns Collaboration, 1953-1954\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>(University of Utah Press) by James Swensen<\/p>\nLife magazine published \u201cThree Mormon Towns\u201d on September 6, 1954. Today, the photo-essay by Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams \u2014 two of the best-known photographers in the medium\u2019s history \u2014 is largely unknown. James Swensen\u2019s new book,\u00a0In a Rugged Land: Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, and the Three Mormon Towns Collaboration, 1953-1954,<\/i>\u00a0argues for a new look at the collaboration. Rich with historical context and insight into how Lange and Adams worked together, Swensen\u2019s book goes beyond a description of the photographic process and a discussion of the subsequent photo-essay. The Brigham Young University professor of art history adeptly weaves a narrative that contextualizes the outsider interest in Mormon communities, the change that photography as a medium and profession was undergoing at the time, and how the publication of the essay was perceived.<\/p>\n
You can read our review of the book\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A poet and essayist now based in Salt Lake City, Joshua Rivkin became enamored of Cy Twombly\u2019s works in the aughts, when he taught creative writing to children at the Menil Collection in Houston, and turned frequently to the Cy Twombly Wing for visual prompts. Pilgrimages to see more of the work followed, but the art never satiated, and Rivkin ached to delve into the stories behind the art, to grasp the man behind the paintings. Chalk<\/em>\u00a0is the rendering of a fascinating and frustrating search to understand someone who Edmund White described as\u00a0“an elusive, cagey man who mumbled and took back every statement he made, just as he erased so many of the words on his canvases and constantly equivocated about his life and sexuality, standing perpetual guard over his biography.\u201d<\/p>\n You can read our review of the work\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/a>Chalk: The Art and Erasure of Cy Twombly\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>(Melville House) by Joshua Rivkin<\/p>\n