Customer Reviews

Cracker; Florida's Enduring Cowboys

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Having had the forune of being born and raised in Florida's...pre theme park era, I have had the luxury of experiencing an evolving FLORIDA.

Jon Kral's photo journalistic approach to capturing a little known, and almost forgotten quality of Florida is remarkable. Not only for the absolute thought provoking images, but what they represent...where we are from...and where we are going.

From the images of the Kissimmee round up and cattle drive, to those of a lone horseman at the end of the day...one is left with a new sense of what the true Florida was...and remains today.

The images range from brutally honest, to surrealistic, yet each conveys it's message clearly...provoking the human spirit and emotion.

This approach to a "land forgotten" should be high on one's list to view. Jon Kral touches not only the meaning of the past...but how it drives the future.

I'm a Welshman who has ranched in Florida for nine years, and I can tell you this is indeed a remarkable book of atmospheric photographs concerning the life of the Florida cowboy. It is a creation that colour could not do, building up a fascinating, fantastic reality in an unique way. I salute the author for his originality. I bought four copies, kept one and sent the rest to my kids across the Pond, sayin', "Y'all better come an' see your ol' pop, Florida ain't what ya think it is!"

Jon Kral has created a beautiful picture story of the life of the Florida "Cracker". Words are not necessary when the picures tell the story, Kral has insight into the life of the cowboy, and it is obvious that he loved every minute of photgraphing the men at work and at home. He put the book together with love of each and every picture. Readers will be surprised and amazed at the cattle country in Florida. We forget that there is more to this state than Walt Disney and Interstate Highways. This book will make the reader want to take a car trip to the Cowboy Country and see the country in person.

"Kral captures (the cowboys) laboring and relaxing in rich monochrome photos that, when meticulously focused and organized, sometimes echo the sculptural quality of Ansel Adams' work, and when more softly focused and granier, resemble impressionist paintings in-oddly enough-black and white." Ray Olson, BookList

"Jon Kral is a Pulitzer-prize nominated Miami Herald staff photographer who grew up on the edge of Florida's cattle country. Kral's coffee table book of black and white photographs is remarkable both for the photography, and it's view...rarely seen by those of us who live here. He captures the clean purity of light just after dawn when it calls one's mind to all that is possible and good, and he grabs at it at midday, when it seems white hot and oppressive, and finally at sundown, when the light calls for coolness and rest. This is a thoroughly remarkable work that leaves the viewer/reader aching for more...more of these disapearing cowboys and more of these remarkable photographs." (Also, note the foreword by Carl Hiaasen.)

I have read every book Carl has written and I keep waiting for the next one, the new novel to come out. Carl, I miss you! Please put a new book out for us. No one does it better. Do you hear me, Carl? HURRY please because I'm going through Hiaasen Withdrawal!