Overview

A uniquely fresh look at Yellowstone National Park on its 150th anniversary and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

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9781938086953

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Janet Pritchard's journey through time reveals the many layers of history, geography, and iconography associated with Yellowstone as a nature reserve, destination, and space of imagination. Through compelling photographs and archival research, Pritchard invites us to look beyond the scenery of America's--and the world's--first national park. --Liz Wells, Emeritus Professor in Photographic Culture, University of Plymouth, and author of Photography: A Critical Introduction More than Scenery is more than the usual photography book. Pritchard has worked long and hard to look at Yellowstone 'from the vantage points of nature, culture, and history.' She deconstructs the myth of Yellowstone even as she, like most of us, continues to be seduced by its extraordinary beauty. But the beauty is frankly mediated by human intervention, illuminating the social construction of wild nature out West. In a curious and clever way, the book becomes a topographic memoir, and the love story at its heart is a collective one, common to everyone who has been awestruck by Yellowstone. As revealed by Pritchard, the history of the park (once called 'Wonderland') is a microcosm of the nation's confused approaches to nature. --Lucy R. Lippard, from Romancing the West More than Scenery offers an important new perspective on the meaning and value of Yellowstone. Anyone familiar with the place knows that it is not just the breathtaking Wonderland of popular understanding. It is that--perfectly breathtaking--but anyone who has lived there knows that Yellowstone is also a human place. With four million visitors a year, the common complaint is that the park is all too human, but Janet Pritchard sees how a balance has been struck there. That sounds like a compromise, as if making space for the human is just a way to allow the place to be paved some more, but Pritchard's is the more sophisticated view that develops over time. She is not just a visitor; she has a long-running relationship with the place going back to childhood. She knows Yellowstone well enough to feel its pulse and appreciate that the place is big enough to make space for many versions of itself. The human and the wild can interact comfortably, which is as much a wonder as anything else. --Scott Herring, Continuing Lecturer in Writing, University of California, Davis, and author of Rough Trip through Yellowstone and Yellowstone's Lost Legend Beyond the spectacle of one of America's most popular national parks, Janet Pritchard becomes an intimate guide to Yellowstone as cultural icon and as a landscape with much to explore. Through remarkable photographs and illuminating texts, More than Scenery takes a deep dive into the overlooked details that make Yellowstone an authentic place of wonder. --Mark Klett, Regents Professor of Art, Arizona State University, and author of Seeing Time Janet Pritchard's More than Scenery is a visual love poem to Yellowstone National Park, a landscape she came to know well and care about deeply. Wandering among her intimate images of the park, its history, and its visitors is akin to taking a long, delicious drive along Yellowstone's Grand Loop Road. Pritchard's wonderful book finds every enchanting viewpoint along the way, and her photographs explore how nature, biography, memory, and our own human experiences of the park combine to make Yellowstone--the park and the greater ecosystem--a place like no other. --William Wyckoff, Professor of Geography, Montana State University, and author of How to Read the American West and On the Road Agai

Janet Pritchard’s new book . . . packages a complex experience of awe — well beyond that of the surface value of the iconic landscape. Three accompanying essays contextualize the mystique — and reality — of Yellowstone, on both personal and societal levels. * photo-eye Blog *

Janet Pritchard's journey through time reveals the many layers of history, geography, and iconography associated with Yellowstone as a nature reserve, destination, and space of imagination. Through compelling photographs and archival research, Pritchard invites us to look beyond the scenery of America's--and the world's--first national park. --Liz Wells, Emeritus Professor in Photographic Culture, University of Plymouth, and author of Photography: A Critical Introduction Janet Pritchard's new book, More than Scenery: Yellowstone, an American Love Story, packages a complex experience of awe -- well beyond that of the surface value of the iconic landscape. -- photo-eye More than Scenery is more than the usual photography book. Pritchard has worked long and hard to look at Yellowstone 'from the vantage points of nature, culture, and history.' She deconstructs the myth of Yellowstone even as she, like most of us, continues to be seduced by its extraordinary beauty. But the beauty is frankly mediated by human intervention, illuminating the social construction of wild nature out West. In a curious and clever way, the book becomes a topographic memoir, and the love story at its heart is a collective one, common to everyone who has been awestruck by Yellowstone. As revealed by Pritchard, the history of the park (once called 'Wonderland') is a microcosm of the nation's confused approaches to nature. --Lucy R. Lippard, from Romancing the West More than Scenery offers an important new perspective on the meaning and value of Yellowstone. Anyone familiar with the place knows that it is not just the breathtaking Wonderland of popular understanding. It is that--perfectly breathtaking--but anyone who has lived there knows that Yellowstone is also a human place. With four million visitors a year, the common complaint is that the park is all too human, but Janet Pritchard sees how a balance has been struck there. That sounds like a compromise, as if making space for the human is just a way to allow the place to be paved some more, but Pritchard's is the more sophisticated view that develops over time. She is not just a visitor; she has a long-running relationship with the place going back to childhood. She knows Yellowstone well enough to feel its pulse and appreciate that the place is big enough to make space for many versions of itself. The human and the wild can interact comfortably, which is as much a wonder as anything else. --Scott Herring, Continuing Lecturer in Writing, University of California, Davis, and author of Rough Trip through Yellowstone and Yellowstone's Lost Legend Beyond the spectacle of one of America's most popular national parks, Janet Pritchard becomes an intimate guide to Yellowstone as cultural icon and as a landscape with much to explore. Through remarkable photographs and illuminating texts, More than Scenery takes a deep dive into the overlooked details that make Yellowstone an authentic place of wonder. --Mark Klett, Regents Professor of Art, Arizona State University, and author of Seeing Time Janet Pritchard's More than Scenery is a visual love poem to Yellowstone National Park, a landscape she came to know well and care about deeply. Wandering among her intimate images of the park, its history, and its visitors is akin to taking a long, delicious drive along Yellowstone's Grand Loop Road. Pritchard's wonderful book finds every enchanting viewpoint along the way, and her photographs explore how nature, biography, memory, and our own human experiences of the park combine to make Yellowstone--the park and the greater ecosystem--a place like no other. --William Wyckoff, Professor of Geography, Montana State University, and author of How to Read the American West and On the Road Agai

Author Information

Janet L. Pritchard is a photographer and Professor of Photography at the University of Connecticut. She has also taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Temple University’s Tyler School of Art, Bucks County Community College, the University of Colorado, Denver, Metropolitan State University, the University of Colorado, Boulder, and the University of New Mexico. Her photographs have appeared in FlakPhoto Projects, Fine Art Photography Daily, Fraction Magazine, LensCulture, Lenscratch, The Photo Review, and View Camera Magazine, among others. Her awards and fellowships include a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in Photography, a Jay and Deborah Last Fellowship at the American Antiquarian Society, a National Endowment for the Arts Summer Institute Fellowship at the Hermon Dunlap Smith Center for the History of Cartography at the Newberry Library in Chicago. Her Artist-in-Residence awards include the Jentel Foundation, Millay Colony for the Arts, Ucross Foundation, and Vindolanda Trust, UK. Her artist Website is www.janetpritchard.com. Lucy R. Lippard is an activist, art critic, curator, and author of twenty-five books, including Pueblo Chico: Land and Lives in Galisteo since 1814 (Museum of New Mexico Press, 2020), Down Country: The Tano of Galisteo Basin, 1250–1782 (Museum of New Mexico Press, 2010), Undermining: A Wild Ride through Land Use, Politics, and Art in the Changing West (The New Press, 2006), On the Beaten Track: Tourism, Art, and Place (The New Press, 1999), and The Lure of the Local: Senses of Place in a Multicentered Society (The New Press, 1997).

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