Pueblo Imagination [Hardcover]

Lee Marmon (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 2003

Evocative photographs celebrating the rich culture and dramatic landscapes of the Laguna Pueblo, the native people of the U.S. Southwest. Lee Marmon is America's most renowned Native American photographer and yet this is the first book to showcase his breathtaking photography. This book combined Mr. Marmon's award-winning photographs celebrating the Laguna Pueblo - their distinctive landscapes, their traditions and history - with equally gorgeous prose and poetry by three of our most celebrated Native American writers: Lee's daughter, the novelist Leslie Marmon Silko, and the poets Joy Harpo and Simon Ortiz. With each flash of the camera, Lee Marmon captured a piece of Native American history; this book preserves that precious legacy. The Pueblo Imagination will be lavishly produced, with the highest quality reproductions, including some seventy black-and-white photos printed in duotone and eight pages of arresting color photographps. The text will flow in prose and verse from the images, setting the stage and capturing in words the history preserved in Lee Marmon's unforgettable images.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Photographer Lee Marmon lives in New Mexico.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 159 pages
• Publisher: Beacon Press; First Edition edition (October 15, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807066141
• ISBN-13: 978-0807066140
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 9.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,426,975 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars elegant and evocative, quietly magical, November 17, 2003

By 

William Kowinski (Arcata, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pueblo Imagination (Hardcover)

Lee Marmon is a Laguna Pueblo Indian who has been taking photographs of Laguna with professional cameras since 1946.
If you've seen the poster of the elderly Indian man wearing Converse All Stars (the image on this book's cover), you've seen Marmon's work.

This collection of his work since 1946 would be worthwhile if it simply documented the ceremonies, buildings, landscapes, faces and figures-what had changed and what did not---over more than a half century. But this volume is so much more. These are beautiful photographs, mostly in black and white. The stark magic of the Southwestern landscape was captured in the abstract paintings of artists like Georgia O'Keefe and Max Ernst. But black and white photos are inherently abstract, since they turn the world of color into shades and grains. Put a master photographer who knows his subject so intimately together with this landscape and you get one astonishing image after another.

There are wonderful faces, dramatic landscapes, close-ups that let you feel the grain of old wood. There's a different feeling in every photo, indescribable in words. And the feelings can be surprising, like the strange joy in "Girls at a clothesline," with white clothes flying against a wisp of cloud, yet in the foreground is a harsh and radiant edge of stone.

There are a smaller number of color photos, just as accomplished and evocative. There's some prose by Marmon's daughter, writer Leslie Marmon Silko, as well as by writers Joy Harjo and Simon Ortiz. But it's the photographs that are important here. They draw you in, and your eyes and heart expand. If you know someone who loves the mystery and bare majesty of the Southwest, or relishes authentic and beautiful images of American Indian life, this book makes an elegant gift for Christmas or any other occasion. If that person is you, do yourself a favor. You won't have any trouble entering these images. The secrets are there.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars spiritually beautiful, June 2, 2008

By 

Enchanted Lady - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pueblo Imagination (Hardcover)

The words and images of this beautiful book evoke feelings of love and gratitude. To God, to Nature, to the people, places and things in harmony with their surroundings. The photographer, author, and poet show true understanding of the meaning of life. Of simpler ways and of times past; while giving hope for the future, and times to come.