Water, Earth, and Sky: The Colorado River Basin [Hardcover]

Michael Collier (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1999

In 1996 award-winning author and photographer Michael Collier set out in his forty-year-old Cessna seeking an expanded understanding and perspective on the Colorado River Basin - a region spanning the states of Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and California - which he had come to know intimately through twenty-five years of river running. Twelve thousand photographs and more than a year later, Collier hadlearned another way of knowing that magnificent landscape and now shares his altered vision. For the first time, through this astonishing collection of aerial photographs, the 244,000 square miles of the basin, including its tributaries and the lands adjacent to them, can be seen for what they are: an integrated bioregion with a natural history fascinating in its complexity and a majestic beauty astounding in its diversity. These are images that provide unforgettable lessons in transcending our often delimiting cultural, political, and scientific worldviews. Flying over the Painted Desert at 150 miles per hour, Collier observes and photographs the entire life span of a thunderstorm: the weighty anvil cloud emptying itself on a parched redrock escarpment and, a few miles downstream, the ensuing flash flood, an erosive tumult of water and detritus. Above the Escalante Canyon, he captures the sinuous, incised meanders of the river, the choreography of a dance twenty million years old between relentless water and uplifting bedrock. The waters of the Colorado River now rarely reach the Sea of Cortez, depleted as they are by hundreds of upstream reservoirs and diversions - and Collier documents this as well: the stark, muddy delta of the river; the feathery channels that remain as the tides withdraw back to the sea. One hundred forty captivating images are accompanied by six essays, written by experts in various fields of natural history and ecology, that illuminate chosen aspects of the landscape: the life cycle of a razorback sucker; the conditions that shape the meanders of a river; the sensory feast of rock, air, water, leaf, and bird that may nourish the human soul. WATER, EARTH, AND SKY is a mosaic of splendid parts, a unique and dynamic assemblage like the Colorado River basin itself, which, viewed from the right distance, resolves itself into the patterns that make it a marvelous and inspiring whole.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Michael Collier is a private-practice physician, freelance photographer, and author of several books and magazine articles on such topics as the geology of the Grand Canyon, Capitol Reef, Denali, and Death Valley. His most recent work is on the San Andreas Fault in California.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

"Imagine the Colorado River Basin as if it were a grand banquet spread before you, your dining room chair bellied up to the Grand Canyon, your left elbow resting of Hoover Dam, your right elbow on the Sleeping Ute's nose, your fork poised somewhere above Canyonlands National Park . . . Think not of a tectonic plate but of a sumptuous feast." (Ellen Meloy)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: University of Utah Press (May 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0874805988
• ISBN-13: 978-0874805987
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 9.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,821,042 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A drop-dead gorgeous book, December 15, 1999

By 

Frank Paris (Beaverton, OR USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Water, Earth, and Sky: The Colorado River Basin (Hardcover)

This is one of the most beautiful books I've ever seen. I wish they would have given details on the printing process for this book. I've never seen such vibrant, sharp, photographs in a book. They look almost as good as professionally done prints on photographic paper. As for the artistic merit of the photographs themselves, they are wonderful, something to get lost in.

5.0 out of 5 stars Becky, November 10, 2009

By 

Rebecca S. Warren "Rocky Mountain High" (Colorado) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Water, Earth, and Sky: The Colorado River Basin (Hardcover)

Collier can take pride in his rare excellence of production. He has obviously been at the right place at the right time, as the lighting in these photographs is exquisite. Even though it appears that the color may have been slightly enhanced... you still need the content for a great photograph. Viewing the formations from above puts everything you have read geolocically into perspective. Collier's photographs introduces you to visuals of the tumultuous geological history of the states that make-up the Colorado Basin. The text is a great read as well. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves geology and photography.