Customer Reviews

New Mexico Then & Now

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you like history and art, you'll love WILLIAM STONE'S NEW MEXICO THEN AND NOW. Using the principal of repeat photography--finding an old picture of a location and rephotographing the same spot--he created a photographic, geographic, and to a degree social history of the state called The Land of Enchantment. You'll have a good time looking through this beautiful coffee table volume. Like every region of the world, New Mexico has had its share of quirky places, where outrageous people did off the wall stuff. And--places where events were dead serious, and which still influence our lives, though they happened long ago. With his large-format camera and tall tripod, STONE has captured the best of The Land of Enchantment's spots for the now images. Even better, his then shots were taken by some of America's finest early photographers. William Henry Jackson, Edward Weston, and many others bring the pages of the book to life. STONE's captions add to the pictures, documenting his feelings and thoughts as he worked on each location. His writing partner, JEROLD WIDDSON's articulare essays tie the pictures together in a lively fashion. No dull paragraphs full of facts here. In fact, if you have sonmeone at home think's history class is boring, leave NEW MEXICO THEN AND NOW around to be discovered. If you have someone who finds history exciting, NEW MEXICO THEN AND NOW is the perfect coffee table book because it's designed to be opened and examined slowly--savored, in other words, like a nice, hot cuppa your favorite brew. In case you haven't figured it out, I enjoyed NEW MEXICO THEN AND NOW. I did it on many levels. Though it focuses on one region of the country, it carries a universal message about change and stability that's fun to discover and think about. It gives us a sense of the American contribution to photography as an art form--and that contribution was no small one. It offers a glimpse of what the west was like to settle and live in--and what it's like today, as a result. NEW MEXICO THEN AND NOW will make a great addition to anyone's living room.

This book was extremely interesting and informative. I have lived in Albuquerque my whole life and found it to be accurate. I ordered it for my boyfriend, Thomas, but we both have enjoyed. I will be getting the Albuquerque, Then and Now next.

Sheryl nanco

This is a fantastic coffe table book that I actually read from cover to cover. Of course, it's mostly photographs, so it wasn't too hard to do, but still. The author has collected old photographs of New Mexico, most of them from the 19th century, and then took photos of the same scenes as they look today. The captions explain a little history of the old photo, and interesting comments about how the new photo was taken. In some cases the old buildings are still standing, and in others there is no longer any trace that the buildings or entire towns even existed. The new photos are very high quality, and the printing of the book is top notch. If you have any interest in New Mexican history or the state's scenic wonders, this is a must have.

... as well as for those passing through, who have been enchanted.

The photographer William Stone, and the regional planner, Jerold Widdison teamed up on this project designed to illustrate the change in the New Mexican landscape over the period of a century or so. They are a good team, with Widdison handling most of the narrative, and Stone meticulously attempting to find the same site from which old photos were taken, and then taking an updated view under optimum conditions. The concept for the project is straightforward; the execution flawless.

There are roughly 250 pictures; almost all are the paired "then and now." The best examples of the contrast are displayed in the format of one photo to a page; most are displayed two photos to a page, and in a few cases, there are several paired photos on a page. Widdison writes concise narratives with each photo. The book includes a meaningful preface and afterword, with historic photo credits.

I found of particular interest the views of the Montezuma Hotel in Las Vegas; the ball field in Madrid; James Dean on Cootes hill, in Columbus, the site of the attack by Pancho Villa in 1916; and the startling difference, and difficulty (due to the trees) of photographing the Old Town square and San Felipe de Neri church right here in Albuquerque. And there is the matter of the "photo not taken." Perhaps the most famous photo ever taken in this state is Ansel Adam's "Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941." Why not an update? Alas, William Stone did not have a crying towel, or, as he circumspectly describes the situation in his preface: "New layers have accumulated on top of the old. A highway maintenance shed partially screens the adobe church from view. Metal has reshaped its roofline, and a chain-link fence encloses the cemetery." He concludes on a more cheerful note: "But beyond the village, the mountains and the vast sky still wait for another moonrise." My only criticism of the book is that he should have taken the picture anyway!

An essential book for your library. Certainly 5-stars.

Mr. Stone spent two years traveling around New Mexico searching out and rephotographing scenes first done by others over a period of about 1855-1945. The book is divided into sections (of the state) and each photograph, past and present, has details about it included.
Mr. Stone writes about how some of the locations have changed a great deal, some not so much, many he could get to (or at least close enough) to duplicate exactly but others he had to do what he could to approximate the original shot. He doesn't say much about what he used for equipment other than some very tall ladders or tripods, no film details, not much camera information either.
I found that some things have changed a great deal while it appears some would look almost the same today to the original photographer as the original shot did.
I wish the author had included a town by town index as well as the regional listing, if you know the name of a town but are unsure of it's location you wll have to search each section for it- assuming it is there.
This is a very fascinating book, I'd like to go see many of these locations myself.

Although this book is certainly lovely enough to be a ''coffee-table book'', it is much more. The photographer found interesting historical photographs of New Mexico urban and rural scenes and then went to the exact same sites and photographed what the scenes look like today. Some of theses sites are extremely remote, and also must have been very difficult to find. The comparison of photographs of New Mexico scenes from the modern times with historical photographs is fascinating,and the quality of the new photographs is outstanding. What surprised me about the book was how intriguing the narrative was. The author did an excellent job of describing both the backgrounds of the historical photographs and also the nature or reasons for the changes in the new images. In addition, he included very readable anecdotes about what efforts he went through to gain access to the sites and how he approached each ''shoot.'' This is a book that would be enjoyed by people who enjoy beautiful photographs and who love to read about New Mexico and the history of the American West.