Recollections: Three Decades of Photography [Hardcover]

John Sexton (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1 pages
• Publisher: Ventana Editions (January 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0967218896
• ISBN-13: 978-0967218892
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)

More About the Author

John Sexton was born in 1953, and resides in Carmel Valley, California. Respected as a photographer, master printmaker, author, and workshop instructor, he is best known for his luminous, quiet, black and white photographs of the natural environment.

John's most recent book is Recollections: Three Decades of Photographs, an award-winning retrospective volume, published in late 2006 by Ventana Editions. John's previous award-winning books include Quiet Light, a monograph representing fifteen years of his work, and Listen to the Trees, which were published by Bulfinch Press/Little, Brown and Company, along with Places of Power: The Aesthetics of Technology published by Ventana Editions.

He is Director of the John Sexton Photography Workshops program, and teaches numerous photography workshops each year for other programs in the United States and abroad, emphasizing printing technique and mastery of the Zone System. Some of these other programs include: Anderson Ranch Arts Center, The Ansel Adams Gallery, Maine Photographic Workshops, and The Palm Beach Workshops.

His informed and entertaining lectures for photographic and professional organizations, colleges and universities, discuss the aesthetic and technical aspects of fine black and white photography. He has presented lectures for, among others, George Eastman House, Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, Boston University, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Photographic Arts, and the Seattle Art Museum.

A recipient of the 2005 North American Nature Photography Association Lifetime Achievement Award, John is a consultant to Eastman Kodak Company and other photographic manufacturers. He worked as both Technical and Photographic Assistant, and then Technical Consultant, to Ansel Adams from 1979 to 1984. Following Mr. Adams' death Sexton served as Photographic Special Projects Consultant to The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust. From 1985 to 1993 he was a member of the Board of Trustees of The Friends of Photography.

John's photographs are included in permanent collections, exhibitions, and publications throughout the world. His work has been featured on the CBS Sunday Morning show, and on the MacNeil Lehrer News Hour. Bank of America, General Motors, and Eastman Kodak Company have used his photographs in national advertising campaigns. Sexton's photographs have been featured in numerous periodicals including: Time, Life, American Photo, Backpacker, Photo Techniques, Darkroom Photography, LensWork Quarterly, View Camera, Black and White, Zoom, Outdoor Photographer, Outside, TWA Ambassador, Southern Accents and Popular Photography.

EDUCATION * Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, departmental honors, Art - Photography, Chapman University, Orange, California * Associate of Arts, with honors, Photography, Cypress College, Cypress, California

SELECTED HONORS AND AWARDS * North American Nature Photography Association, Lifetime Achievement Award, 2005 * Kodak Professional Icon, 2004 * Kodak Professional Legends Online, 2000 * Cypress College, Thirtieth Anniversary Outstanding Alumnus. 1997 * Photographic Book of the Year Awards, First Place Monograph: Listen to the Trees, 1994 * Brooks Institute of Photography, Honorary Master of Science degree, 1990 * Imogen Cunningham Award, 1981

SELECTED ONE-PERSON EXHIBITIONS John Sexton: Twenty Years of Photographs, major retrospective exhibition, Monterey Peninsula Museum of Art. Quiet Light, traveling exhibition organized by the United States Information Agency, toured in fifteen countries in Europe, 1994 to 1996. International Center of Photography, New York, NY; Clarence Kennedy Gallery; Polaroid Corporation Cambridge, MA; The Weston Gallery, Carmel, CA; Photo Gallery International, Tokyo, Japan; Focus Gallery, San Francisco, CA; The Afterimage Gallery, Dallas, TX; Photokina, Cologne, Germany; Alinder Gallery, Gualala, CA; Folio Gallery, Calgary, Canada; The Ansel Adams Gallery, Yosemite National Park, CA; Susan Spiritus Gallery, Costa Mesa, CA; The Friends of Photography, Carmel, CA; Kathleen Ewing Gallery, Washington, D.C.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Recollections: Three decades of Photography, October 15, 2006

By 

Robert Darby (Maine) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Recollections: Three Decades of Photography (Hardcover)

"Recollections" is a must have book for everyone interested in the magic of elegant black and white photography.

John Sexton's "Recollections" as presented in this book are indeed magic. Photography is writing in light and John's photographs are powerful examples of the best this medium has to offer. Three decades of photography have refined his vision and honed his craft to the highest level of any photographer today.

John looks into the soul of the land very intimately then graciously shares his vision with us. Interspersed among the landscapes are clear, dignified abstracts, and isolations of Architecture. His impeccable technique allows refined and magical expressions.
Some are very simple yet elegantly beautiful as exemplified by "Casa del Oro, Monterey" While others challenge your sense of scale and progression as in "Geologic Conundrum, Banff National Park, Canada". You owe it to yourself to explore the rest of this book and discover all the other delights "Recollections" has to offer.

This is not a lightweight book either in the physical or spiritual sense. "Recollections" is a masterful presentation by a Master Photographer.

Bob Darby, Photographer

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Magnificent!, November 1, 2006

By 

Andrew Ilachinski (Springfield, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Recollections: Three Decades of Photography (Hardcover)

The on-line Oxford Dictionary defines the word magnificent simply as "impressively beautiful"; where beauty is said to be "a combination of qualities that delights the aesthetic senses." While both words come to mind in describing John Sexton's new book, Recollections: Three Decades of Photographs, if we are to go by Oxford's rather banal definitions, neither word even comes close to conveying the depths of visual and spiritual pleasures that await anyone who focuses their eye on the masterful B&W images assembled here.

Though I own hundreds of photography books, and regularly peruse most of them for years, I have had a relatively few "Wow!" reactions over the years - indeed, the last such experiences are at least two decades old (!): to Bruce Barnbaum's late 1970s' Visual Symphony and, in the middle 1980s, to Fay Godwin's Land - but Sexton's new Opus not only evoked an immediate heartfelt "Wow!" from me, it also raises the bar on what will trigger a similar exclamation from me in the future. I sat transfixed for hours after receiving it in the mail yesterday, and already consider it a sacrosanct member of the deepest core of my photography library. It is truly an extraordinary work of art; one that I will be savoring - and learning from - for years to come.

It is also clearly the work of a master photographer and printer, at the height of his creative powers; and a "master" not just of the "moment" compared to his living peers, but a "master" as judged in the context of the history of the medium.

Of course, it is impossible to describe the "contents" of this book, except to say that it contains 52 plates (and a few short essays) of such things as rocks, trees, and water. But, as with all great photographic art, by the time you get to even the second image, such conventional, blandly and trivially representational categories are understood as absurd and meaningless. The best of Sexton's images - and there are none in this book that are not! - capture spirit itself.

In short, a masterpiece!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spectacular!, January 16, 2007

By 

Marilyn Bowie - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Recollections: Three Decades of Photography (Hardcover)

Yesterday we received your "Recollections" book. What a glorious collection of images to enhance the world of fine art photography! One page is more spectacular than the other. In these days when traditional photography seems to be headed towards the sunset, your artistry promises a new sunrise.

Gordon & Marilyn Bowie
Boise, ID