Foreword Book Awards Two Silver’s!

Today we learned my book Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Fifty Years of American Landscapes has been named a winner in two categories in the 26th annual Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards. We won the Silver Award in both the Nature Book and Art Book categories!

I am humbled and proud to have won the Silver Awards with so many entries from around the world. You always hope people like your work, and it is gratifying to receive such recognition.

The Foreword INDIES recognize the best books published in 2023 from independent and university presses, as well as self-published authors.

With over 2,400 entries submitted across 55 categories, this year’s competition showcased the remarkable talent and diversity of the independent publishing industry. Foreword’s dedicated editors carefully selected approximately 12 finalists per genre, which were then presented to individual librarians and booksellers entrusted with the challenging task of determining the Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Honorable Mention winners.

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You can buy the book in our shop where all books are signed: https://shop.quietlightpublishing.com/great-smoky-mountains-national-park-five-decades-of-american-landscapes-by-richard-mack/

It is also available at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Great-Smoky-Mountains-National-Park/dp/0975395424/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1QCSCA8VCVJCL&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.ZyxXxkwm-dOnL6GNg-JjadibkvuKBuJes7vvDiMBOmzluG188LzOU4UrYl5ENBFQ1YkjlKSmhuYsyXelpobe0yinWbyMy88wmkSTXXI-HIkPsrqymTsCPuSU_6tATlfPMU-IgxrpfNUHjZ1lDC8p1qiSSAycZPyqHk5UpkiyWeE_ZLQDf3_tWRSI8v-KFILqZvTk0ZttEEShmuyr4YAmqES5k_70m0ApXomUZjoLZI8.eU_6_XOJgi9_2GhujRBDC2uufQvvDmRGXfytz2Pg_gw&dib_tag=se&keywords=richard+mack+books&qid=1718111627&sprefix=Richard+Mack%2Caps%2C107&sr=8-2

Great Smoky Mountain Book Trailer

Here is a short trailer for the new book Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Five Decades of American Landscapes which will be in our hands shortly! After 10 years of not changing anything in this best selling book in Great Smoky Mountains National Park stores I thought it would be good to change up this third printing by adding new work. I’ve added 55 new images and redesigned which images are where in the the book. The printing by ArtBookPrinting who worked with us on this version. The print quality is the best I’ve experienced! Each image has more detail than beofre, I went through each image in Lightroom/Photoshop and pulled out more details than before which the presses could now handle.

I also want to thank my designer Rich Nickel, John Manos for editing the copy and of course Steve Kemp for writing the foreword and chapter pieces. A book like this is truely a work of collaboration! Thank you to all who worked with me on this book.

Rember you can pre-order the book on QuietLight Publishing website! http://www.quietlightpublishing.com

The Sweetwater Seas in 100 Words

The Sweetwater Seas in 100 Words is a quick introduction to the feature-length documentary film. In it we reveal the beauty, majesty, and challenges faced by the Great Lakes, which we will cover fully in the hour-long documentary. We plan to enter this short version in this year’s “100-Word Film Festival.”

We have released several quick and delicious film clips for our documentary The Sweetwater Seas – North America’s Great Lakes so far and plan on releasing many more this summer which will be small episodes from those who live and work on the Great Lakes as we tell their stories. Some will be about the challenges the lakes face and have faced in the past, some about historic past events on the lakes, travelling the lakes and some will be about the beauty and majesty these lakes encompass.

THE SWEETWATER SEAS is a feature documentary that integrates science and fine-art videography to explore one of North America’s wonders. The film examines the latest thinking about the environmental sustainability of the Great Lakes Watershed and seeks to engage viewers into making a difference. Although 42 million people live within the Watershed, most have never been around their own lake, much less all five. We will take them on a voyage of discovery to rival Champlain’s.

The project will reveal the natural landscape and its geological history, the watershed’s cityscapes, and its vast industrial and agricultural areas. Humans started living near these immense bodies of water tens of thousands of years ago, but it is only in the last few centuries that human activity has impacted the environment of the lakes. To engage viewers THE SWEETWATER SEAS will offer both images of great beauty in the natural world that surrounds the lakes as well as video of the tides of pollution and invasive species that threaten this magnificent resource. By using the voices of scientists, environmentalists, political leaders, engaged corporations and everyday people around the lakes, the story of these extraordinary bodies of water—their history, their importance and threats to their health—will be explored and explained.

You can see more about this documentary at www.thesweetwaterseas.com

We hope you’ll enjoy each and every segment.

Cheers,
Richard

The Sweetwater Seas

Folios Allow An Artist to Share – You to Collect

Folio - The Lewis & Clark Trail, Richard Mack, photographer

Folio - The Lewis & Clark Trail, Richard Mack, photographer

As artists we are always looking for ways to show our work to a larger audience, both for the monetary reason and because why you really create art is to share your vision with the world – in addition to the feeling it gives us as we create.

Quiet Light Publishing has released Fine Art Folio’s for each book offered and the work of Jill Buckner and I working as TWO PHOTOGRAPHERS | ONE VISION in Morocco and Italy. Each folio consists of ten to twelve 8 1/2″ x 11″ prints, with a 4 page text signature and is presented in a folder. The image size is roughly 6 1/2″ in width. Each is printed on Epson Hot Press Bright Fine Art Paper using Epson Ultrachrome archival pigment inks to the exacting standards of the photographers. Each folio is signed and numbered by the photographer. Some are presented in both a color and a black & white version. Folio’s are a great value with ten to twelve prints and an artist statement. Each print is suitable for framing.

Small portfolios of work are nothing new. Great photographers have always released prints in small portfolios from Ansel Adams and Walker Evans to Eugene Atget and many others. Often you can buy the entire portfolio or just one print. Because of the price point we have taken you get all 10-12 prints for one low price! A folio is a great way to tell your story about a place or cover an idea you have been exploring. Each photographer chose the best ten to twelve images from a large body of work on each subject to create these intimate Folios. Each body of work then comes from their wish to share these images with you.

To view each one you can go to http://www.quietlightpublishing.com/Folios.php

The Lewis & Clark Trail

Richard Mack, photographer

I spent two and a half years travelling the trail and being in the places the Corps of Discovery were, at the same time of year, in order to give the viewer the feeling of being on the trail with them. This collection of images spans from South Dakota to the Pacific Ocean from my book The Lewis & Clark Trail: American Landscapes. This folio is available in both color and a black & white version.

Richard Mack
2012

Folio - Great Smoky Mountains NP, Richard Mack, photographer

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Richard Mack, photographer

I went to the Smoky Mountains when I first took up photography at 18. I spent thirty years honing my craft in this my favorite park. This collection of ten images show the breadth of my work in a set of images from my book Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Thirty Years of American Landscapes.

Richard Mack
2012

Folio - Their Love of Music, Stephen Azzato, photographer

Their Love of Music

Stephen Azzato, photographer

Stephen Azzato photographed musicians and asked on question – why do you do what you do? “The beauty of this project for me was being able to sit with a huge range of musicians and explore what drew them to their art”, says Azzato. “I was able to hear it in their voices and record it visually in their images”. In the simple quiet of a green room, without the crowds or bandmates or tour managers, Azzato’s photographs transcend the chaos of the stage and the intensity of the studio to reveal the inner spirit that drives each of his subjects. This set of ten images are from his book Their Love of Music.

Stephen Azzato
2012

Two Photographers | One Vision – Morocco

Jill Buckner and Richard Mack, photographers

We were on assignment in Italy and Morocco in the spring of 2012. What may have started as a mild competition became inspirational and synergistic. We were quite excited about the passion and energy that was unleashed. It is rare for two photographers to work together so seamlessly to create a single, cohesive body of work. In most instances we do not know which one of us shot which images. Therefore we both sign every print.

We had only 4 ½ days to discover the treasures of the country. We photographed in Casablanca, Marrakech, and the countryside in between. We explored new areas of the cities as well as the old souks. We discovered that while photography is most certainly an individual process, under the right conditions it also could be a true partnership.

Jill Buckner
Richard Mack
2012

Folio - Tuscany, Jill Buckner & Richard Mack, photographers

Two Photographers | One Vision – Tuscany

Jill Buckner and Richard Mack, photographers

As photographers we see the world each in a different way. We see an image in our mind and decide on a lens, the proper perspective, and depth of field, all in order to create the image we have visualized. It is a process unique to each photographer. It is a way of seeing which comes from inside of you. Yet when you find someone who thinks the way you do about the craft of photography, it is an exhilarating experience. Someone who sees the world in a slightly different way but creates images similar to yours. Such was the case with us. During the six months we shot images together prior to our trip, we often could not tell which of us had taken a particular photograph. We delighted in the fact that traveling with another photographer meant you never had to worry about the hours spent shooting at a single location because you knew the other was happy to shoot, or just wait, while you worked on a set of images.

It was with that mindset we set out across Tuscany, Florence, and Venice, two photographers working together to capture the beauty of Italy in one body of work. In Tuscany we shot for a client who wanted specific images for a project as well as general landscape images that captured the feeling of Tuscany. We also had a few glorious days on our own, shooting scenery that moved us. Images that said to us – Italy.

Jill Buckner
Richard Mack
2012

Two Photographers | One Vision – Venice

Jill Buckner and Richard Mack, photographers

Two photographers, one vision. What may have started as a mild competition became inspirational and synergistic. We were quite excited about the creativity and energy that were unleashed. It is seldom two photographers can work together so seamlessly to create a single, cohesive body of work.

The process of capturing an image is unique to each photographer. Yet our images are strikingly similar. It is an exhilarating experience to find someone who feels the way you do about the craft of photography. Someone whose view of the world is slightly different than yours, but who creates similar photographs. Such was the case with us. We were thrilled to be traveling and shooting together, secure in the knowledge that traveling with another photographer meant you never had to worry about taking hours to shoot at a single location because your partner gets it.

Jill Buckner
Richard Mack
2012

The Price is $125.00 with a Special Introductory Price until March 31, 2013 of only $95.00! The

Discount is automatically applied at checkout.

To see the Folios use this link: Folios on QLP

Enjoy,
Richard

Another Great Review for Their Love of Music – and a great New Years Gift

Their Love of Music by Stephen Azzato

We just received this review from Steve Benoche at the Ludington Daily News. Nice article! So did you get what you wanted for Christmas? Then order this book now! Makes a great New Years Gift!

Their Love of Music
Photographs by Stephen Azzato
Forward by Lester Holt
Size 11” X13”
252 pages, 118 photographs
Quiet Light Publishing
ISBN: 9780975395431

By Steve Begnoche
Managing editor, Ludington Daily News

Music, in its purest sense, is an aural experience. Add some emotion and one shouldn’t have to see a thing to enjoy it. Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles prove that.

But photographer Stephen Azzato explores what others have discovered: Music, in the form of musicians, make a strong subject for visual arts, too.

Azzato, a network television videographer residing in Chicago, takes an interesting and insightful approach to musicians in “Their Love of Music,” a 252-page coffee table book of portraits of musicians.

These photographs were made often before concerts with a brown cloth background that forces all attention on the musician and the instrument they sometimes brought with them.

The format is simple: one page is the photograph and on the facing page is a a quote from the musician revolving around why the musician does what he or she does and how did they get to where they are in their career?

Simple questions, a simple format, a simple background and a simply stunning book.

Musicians of all pedigree, some famous like blues great Buddy Guy and rockers Steve Miller and George Thorogood, some relatively unknown or a backup player in a “name” musician’s band are featured.

Among those profiled are some top-notch singer-songwriters who might not be household names, Jennifer Peterson, Kristina Milk and, for West Shore Community College Performing Arts Series patrons, 2009-2010 performer Alice Peacock.

Some of the musicians look intense, even in this setting. Eddie “The Chief” Clearwater has the looks of a former NFL linebacker. But his comment shows a look doesn’t say everything. “When I play the blues it’s a good feeling. You could describe it as a spiritual being takes over, way out of the ordinary and puts you in a whole new dimension from yourself.”

Country musician Clint Black has a very happy expression on his face. “The history of country music is on the lyric … you don’t have to be a professor of sociology to get the point,” he observes.

Rosanne Cash, who in late summer performed at Little River Casino Resort in Manistee, has a bit of a questioning look, as if she’s trying to see through the camera to the photographer.

Steve Miller looks like a businessman, in his sports coat, open-collared white shirt, and dark glasses. “I don’t think of myself as a rock star,” he said.

And so it goes. The photos and the quotes play off one another, sometimes one informs the sense of the other. Sometimes they sit side-by-side seeming a bit incongruous.

I had one quibble, and one complaint.

The quibble has to do with making the reader go to the artist notes in the back of the book to find out who some musicians are and what they’re known for. The explanation is put in tiny type next to a 35mm contact print size thumbnail photo. I don’t think it would have harmed the elegance of this book — and it is elegant — to have included the artist information on the same page as the artist quote. That would have been helpful to the reader and might have even made one slow down to consider even more deeply the photographic image of the featured musician.

The complaint?

Too many typos. Such a fine product deserved more scrutiny of the written word. The little errors take away from an otherwise splendid book.

And it is a splendid book.
Date published: 12-30-2010