Traveling Light: A Photographer's Journey [Paperback]

Deborah Dewit Marchant (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2003

Traveling Light is the personal story of Deborah DeWit Marchant's fascination with the power and mystery of light and her passionate search to capture that mystery with her camera. As she travels across the United States and through such countries as Scotland, France and Western Australia, she photographs the atmosphere of a place--landscapes and interiors. Marchant's rich prose and forty-seven color photographs illustrate the depths of the creative process.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A poetic coming-of-age memoir. What an exquisite little book!" -- Eleanor Edmondson, president of Bas Bleu, Bookseller-by-Post

"The inspiring prose is perfectly paired with richly atmospheric photographs from the author's extensive travels." -- Bronwyn Prohaska, Gracious Living

"This heartfelt treatise of the artist's journey is a book for those dedicated to the discovery of hidden beauty." -- Carlos Eyles, author/photographer

About the Author

Deborah DeWit Marchant is a self-taught photographer, painter and writer. She has been exhibiting her work in galleries in the Northwest for over twenty years, and her images have been used on the covers of books, magazines, and in calendars. She lives outside of Portland, Oregon.

Product Details

• Paperback: 86 pages
• Publisher: Impassio Pr (May 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0971158339
• ISBN-13: 978-0971158337
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,373,430 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful blend of photos and offsetting text, July 26, 2003

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Traveling Light: A Photographer's Journey (Paperback)

The author's personal fascination with light and photography led to travels around the world photographing landscapes and interiors using light's richness and oddities. Traveling Light: A Photographer's Journey is a catalog of her work is a beautiful blend of photos and offsetting text explaining their origins and settings. Readers receive fine insights not only into Marchant's beautiful photos, but the methods and inspirations which fostered them. Highly recommended.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars See the Mystery of Light As Never Before, December 29, 2007

By 

Story Circle Book Reviews - See all my reviews

This review is from: Traveling Light: A Photographer's Journey (Paperback)

"God is in the details..." If anyone lives the truth of this well known statement, it is Deborah DeWit Marchant, the author of Traveling Light. Ms. DeWit Marchant's fascination with light and how it effects whatever it falls upon heightens her awareness of her surroundings. She sees a transcendental beauty in every detail of ordinary life and is able to convey this special beauty--its mystery and elusiveness--in her paintings and in her photography. And if such a talent were not enough, she is also a brilliant writer who shares with us the journey of her life, her personal world and her feelings in an exceptionally insightful way.

The way in which light affects an object is not something many people particularly notice. But for Ms. DeWit Marchant, the existence of light is an essential value in her life. Whatever she looks at, be it inside or outside, is affected by the way light does or does not illuminate it. Not the typical coffee-table book, Traveling Light is a small book with relatively small images on one side of a page and her mesmerizing, descriptive passages on the other. Her photography has given me a new awareness of light. Because it is so subtle, I sometimes cannot actually see the light imbued in her images; yet I can feel its presence.

The author's life has been deeply enriched by the aliveness of her five senses. This is best conveyed by her following descriptive passage:

"On a winter morning I arrived at work early, before anyone else. Our first snow had fallen in the night. The air was damp and soft. Everything had been swept clean by the light dusting. The white, muffled silence was nearly complete. Only the scrape of wooden flats against asphalt echoed across the lot as I heaved boxes of plants up from their protection beneath the tables.

I paused, panting. Clouds of breath lingered long and cottony around me. My heat-throbbing cheeks welcomed the slap of frozen air. I stood still and gazed about me: the wet blacktop was blue and pink with the reflected morning sky; the droopy, stalwart pansies had been wilted by the sudden shock of frost; and the sawdust pile, snow-capped like a mountain, was forested with bare, pruned roses waiting for me to bury their shivering dormant roots in pots of warm black soil."

Marchant masterfully captures light falling on a flower, a chair, a meadow, a door, a piece of wood, etc. Her subjects are beautiful and limitless. She writes that she was raised on a farm and loved it--the sound and sturdiness of the tractor, the light and mustard yellows of the wheat fields, the rich brown of the earth, the glistening pond, the brilliance or haziness of the sky. Early on, she was drawn to the presence of light in its limitless hues and shadings; its illumination of the essence of things; its effect on the mood of a scene. Taking nothing for granted, she marvels at the world in all its subtle nuances and transformations with an eye for mystery, a sensitivity to sensation, and a need to capture those sensations on film, understand them and share them with others.

Her photographic journey began when she was fifteen with her father's 35mm camera. Today, she brings a special uniqueness to every photograph, capturing the ethereal quality of ever-changing light. Cows grazing in a field are not just cows grazing in a field. Marchant observes, "...the steam that rose from their hot wet skins, like mist on the surface of a warm river after a shower of green-grey rain," and she insists on capturing that sensory image.

Her writing so beautifully complements her photographic images, making this book is unlike any photography book I have seen. The tiniest detail has a seemingly invisible quality that she is determined to capture.

Marchant's willingness to discuss her own internal changes and new experiences with such candor added to my pleasure in reading this book. For me, the wonder of her talent in Traveling Light is twofold. First, I now see the mystery of light as never before. Secondly, as the author reveals her inner changes, she assists me in preparing for my own changes. What a unique and extraordinary gift this talented artist has given me...a gift that enriches me daily.

by Duffie Bart
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

5.0 out of 5 stars This is my favorite book on photography, September 25, 2011

By 

D. Farrell (the Sunnyside of Louisville) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Traveling Light: A Photographer's Journey (Paperback)

This slim volume both shows and tells of a woman's quest to capture light and life. In prose as lyrical and evocative as the photographs she takes, Marchant recounts the trajectory of her education as a photographer. In telling her story, she shows how her pursuit of the perfect photograph both promotes and confounds her self-awareness and spiritual growth. I have returned to this book again and again for inspiration.