Customer Reviews

Black Rock

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3 star:		(1)
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I received this book two days ago as a gift. I am absolutely enthralled by the images and just getting started on the text. I'm having a difficult time pulling myself away from the beautiful pictures of the haunting Black Rock. as a resident of northern Nevada and a frequent visitor to the Black Rock Desert I can attest to this book's ability to capture the feeling of one of the world's most unique landscapes. A must for the Black Rock lover and suggested for anyone interested in the Black Rock but unable to get there in person. This book certainly shows the unique beauty of the Black Rock and makes a strong case for the preservation of the fragile environment of the playa.

114 color plates, 8 duotones, 21 maps, and 5 figures lavishly illustrate Black Rock, a written and visual tour to the captivating beauty of the Black Rock country of northern Nevada. Though much of this land is desert, it nonetheless brims with life. A few of the images are of the people who live and work there going about their daily routine, but many more are striking landscapes, or glimpses into a hidden yet thriving natural ecology. The text offers a detailed and absorbing history of the mysterious desert landscape. Black Rock is pure joy to browse, and especially recommended for public library collections.

I love the desert, in general, and the Black Rock desert, from the many times that I have visited there. I visited the show of these photograhs at Reno's Art Museum so bought the book without really reading it first as I thought that it would be a good introduction and guide to the area. Big mistake.

It is a classic "Coffee table" book, that is, if you leave it on your coffee table and some one picks it up and looks at it for no more than five minutes it is impressive. However, don't try reading it. The text is pretentious, trying to be mystical, poetical and profound but only achieving verbosity. The text is merely an excuse to pad and space out the photographs which are NICE, but not great. Any amateur photographer with a good eye could do as well. Nothing is really spectacular which is strange given the number of years that the author has visited the desert.

There is some actual interesting information but the text could be condensed to four pages for a very nice pamphlet on the area.

It is the kind of book that a small university press publishes to show how hip it is to its locale.