On Sunday while I was walking along the shore of Lake Michigan I received an email notifying me that my book Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Thirty Years of American Landscapes had won the Silver Medal in the Art, Photography & Coffee Table books category of the Eric Hoffer Book Awards. It is an honor to have received this accolade from the industry. 

In the review of the book US Review of Books said the following: 

“The US Review of Books: The Eric Hoffer Award.”

Great Smoky Mountain National Park: Thirty Years of American Landscapes, Richard Mack, Quiet Light Publishing - Photographer Richard Mack doesn’t let words get in the way of his sumptuous series of pictures of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. For thirty years, Mack has roamed and captured images of this National Park beauty. The book is divided into the major park sections (i.e. Cades Cove, Oconaluftee, Roaring Fork etc.), exploring the natural subdivisions within each. Occasionally the filters are set for subtle effect, but mostly you will find icy clear depictions of the majesty wrought from this mountainous pine and deciduous forest in every season. It is the kind of coffee table book that draws you in and has you flipping through every page.

 You can view more of the award winners online at www.hofferaward.com.                

It’s an honor to have been considered for this award and even more humbling to have been the first runner up for this award. More awards will be awarded in New York at BookExpo later in May so stay tuned to see how we fair in those awards!

If you haven’t seen the book you can Look Inside the Book at Quiet Light Publishing and purchase signed copies! You can also purchase signed copies of the 2007 Eric Hoffer Book Award Gold Medalist winner The Lewis & Clark Trail: American Landscapes!

Peace,

Richard

The Eric Hoffer Book Awards committee has announced the finalists list for the 2010 Grand Prize Award for Independent Publishing. Quiet Light Publishing’s book Great Smokey Mountains National Park: Thirty Years of American Landscapes, Photographs by Richard Mack has made this short list. Two Grand Prizes are awarded annually, one for short prose and one for excellence in publishing of independent books from small publishers.

The Eric Hoffer Book Awards were established at the beginning of the 21st century as a means of opening the door to writing of significant merit. It honors the memory of the great American philosopher Eric Hoffer by highlighting salient writing as well as the independent spirit of small publisher’s.

We are honored to be named to the short list. The final winners will be named at Book Expo in New York City on May 24-25. They are also covered in the US Review of Books. So now we wait for the final judging!

Peace,
Richard

We are pleased to announce that our book Great Smokey Mountains National Park: Thirty Years of American Landscapes, photographs by Richard Mack was named as a finalist in the 2009 Book of the Year Awards for Photography.

ForeWord Reviews today announced the finalists in the 2009 Book of the Year Awards. The finalists, representing 360 publishers, were selected in 60 categories. These books are examples of independent publishing at its best. 

The winners will be determined by a panel of librarians and booksellers. Gold, Silver, and Bronze winners, as well as Editor’s Choice Prizes for Fiction and Nonfiction will be announced at a special program at BookExpo America in New York City on May 25, 2010. ForeWord‘s Book of the Year Awards program was designed to discover distinctive books from independent publishers across a number of genres.

We are honored to be announced as a finalist in this prestigious award. There are 14 books listed as finalists so we will await the decisions of the judges and the award ceremony in New York on May 25^th!

Cheers!

Richard

This past weekend I had the pleasure of being in Great Smoky Mountains National Park to do two book signing events at Sugarlands and Cades Cove Visitor Centers. It is always fun to be down there and meet folks coming into the park and get reactions to the book first hand. I have some great notes from a few of those who have taken the book home and written me about how much they love the book. I am always humbled by their notes. This past weekend I also ended up giving some advice on where to go to shoot the sunset in the park to three gentlemen who had come for the weekend to shoot some images. I mentioned that on this night they could go up to Clingmans Dome and get two very different shots, one of the full moon rising in the east and then turn to the west and photograph the ridges of mountains in the sunset. I confessed I was going to try and head someplace else to shoot the full moon rising, since I had shot it from Clingmans Dome before – and I showed them the pages in the book. But I confessed if it didn’t work I might see them up there.

Well, as it turns out, the location I thought might work looked a bit to far to the southeast and ridges blocked where the moon was going to come up at 81º in the east. So I eventually headed up to Clingmans Dome and ran into these gents and we all ended up shooting together, along with the dozens of others up there that cold, cold evening. I was too late for the moon rise, but got there to shoot the end of the sunset. It is always fun to see how you can have 4-5 folks within feet of each other and we all get different results and see the shots differently. It was also fun to give them some advice on the techniques I use to achieve some of the my images and how late into the darkness I end up shooting, usually being the last to leave an area in total darkness.

All three it turns out have studio’s down south but don’t do nature photography. I got a nice note back from one of them who is the photographer for the woman’s roller derby team in Atlanta – who knew they still had roller derby? He’s got some nice shots of them. Ironically, none of them bought the book – what’s up with that? – but we all had a great time anyway! In his note he said they all decided to come back often to shoot in the park, so maybe the next time I’m there over Halloween weekend I’ll run into them again.

To see more from this hour of shooting on Clingmans Dome use this link: Clingmans Dome Sunset

Cheers!

Richard

Saturday night was the official book release party sponsored by Quiet Light Publishing and Renew Management at Studio Flo in Evanston. Everyone had a great time and it was great to see everyone who came to celebrate the release of my new book Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Thirty Years of American Landscapes.

The food, wine and beer flowed freely as people enjoyed the prints on display and I signed books. Here are shots taken by Rich Nickel, the designer of the book. Thank Rich for taking these. At one point it was so crowded both floors of the space were packed.

To see more images use this link: http://www.mackphoto.com/blog/QLPParty/ 

I also want to thank our sponsor, Renew Management for donating the space for this event. They have supported the arts in Evanston for decades. If you are looking for live/work lofts these are the coolest – check them out!  www.evanstonlofts.com

Thanks to all who came!

Richard