Reviews for Erowina

The average rating for Erowina based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-01-19 00:00:00 Liz Cooper Hillers worked for 25 years as John Wesley's photographer. After a chance encounter with Powell in Salt Lake, he was asked to join one of Powell's expeditions on the Colorado. He assisted the expedition's photographer but increasingly assumed more photographing duties, until finally assuming the role as Powell's primary photographer. Though his photos were largely documentary, Powell gave him freedom to shoot photos of his choice, and artistically.* Of the thousands of pictures he took, he selected sixty for his personal album, ten of which appear in this book (one of Rio Virgin River; two from Yosemite; seven of Indian pueblos). These are outstanding.** My favorite picture, though, was #97, a railroad trestle over Canyon Diablo, Arizona, 1883. The bridge architecture, the stark canyon landscape, and the placement of the three car, one engine train on the trestle all work together as a perfect composition, captured and presented crisply. The author comments that, on Powell and Hillers's last trip to the Southwest in 1885, both visited the South Rim of the Grand Canyon that was "just beginning to be developed as a tourist attraction." "One wonders," the author writes, "what their thoughts and words were as they gazed down into the great chasm, they had so perilously explored." On picture #74, Governors of Juni Pueblo, New Mexico, the narrative states that this group is of the pueblo's "secular leaders who dealt with political and external affairs, as contrasted with the priests, who dealt with religious matters and were usually unknown to outsiders. Prior to Spanish times, the priests ruled in all things, but the necessity of protecting the indigenous religion from Spanish persecution led to the creation of secular 'governors,' or front men, who were ostensible leaders and dealt with the outside world." The next picture, #75, is a group of children with teachers at Zuni Pueblo, 1879. A tall person in the center is "a male transvestite." The narrative adds that, "as in other Indian societies, Zuni men could adopt women's roles in certain circumstances." *In 1883, Powell said of Hillers that he "may take pictures where he pleases until further orders." **The author writes that the "Navajo Sandstone cliffs and spires of de Chelly produce a sense of wonder. Hillers's photographs convey that wonder as eloquently as any done since." More generally, the author writes that "Jack Hillers took photography in America from mere recording to high art."

Review # 2 was written on 2013-05-24 00:00:00 Samm Ringgenberg one of my fav books of all time - the oven part kills me everytime i read this!!