Ancient America (Paperback)

~ (Author, Photographer), Brian M. Fagan (Author), Patrick O'Dowd (Author), Karen Sinsheimer (Introduction)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Through 250 exquisite full-color and black-and-white photos, photographer David Muench presents a superb visual interpretation of what the North American continent was like before the arrival of Europeans. Printed on high-quality paper with excellent reproduction, this is a stunning collection that will appeal to photographers as well as nature lovers.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Roberts Rinehart Pub (October 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570981264
• ISBN-13: 978-1570981265
• Product Dimensions: 11.7 x 11.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #705,016 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Overwhelming., November 19, 1998

By A Customer

It's too much. Too much beauty. Muench is the man, and to see so much of his work together is pretty overwhelming. You have to digest this in modest chunks. A vast range of photos from his 40 years provides an insight into Muench's outstanding natural vision - his great gift. Makes a great gift.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Imaging the Past: Colorful, Spiritual Pre-Columbian Visions, March 24, 2001

By	Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

This book deserves more than five stars, and is clearly one of the finest color landscape photography books ever published. Go to whatever lengths you must to acquire this amazingly wonderful volume!

Ancient America "celebrates the ancient threads that connect our momentary existence to a universal continuum and bind us to larger meaning." Imagine yourself as one of the first people to arrive in the Americas, having traveled across the land bridge from Siberia or across the Pacific by raft or canoe. There is no smog. There are no buildings. You simply see the grandeur of nature in its most pristine and awesome form. The world is a cathedral to you. That is the vision that Mr. Muench shares with us in this great collection.

The book begins with several stunning photographs that capture the range of the whole book. There is a brief introduction about the photography, then a superb discussion of American anthropology by Brian Fagan that creates a poetic vision of the book's subject. You will learn much about the settling of the Americas in the process. Did you know that humans arrived here only around 12,000 years ago and that populations were quite small until 350 years ago when the European immigrants began to arrive in substantial numbers?

The photographs are subdivided into the following sections: light; earth, rock, water, trees, ruins, and growth. Mr. Muench has a few final words at the end. "Timeless moments of ancient light are for me an expansion of the spirit . . . ."

Mr. Muench has many skills as a photographer. Like Ansel Adams, he is brilliant in using dawn, dusk, and moonlight to capture unusual moments and moods. Also like Mr. Adams, he has an unerring sense of composition that captures the interconnections of nature's patterns in fascinating and rewarding ways. But he exceeds Mr. Adams in his ability to use color. And all of these images are in gorgeous color. The color creates an emotional climate of spiritual peacefulness that will help you regain your sense of wonder, as you shed the distractions of "civilization."

I was particularly impressed to find that many of the images came from parts of North America that I had never seen before. In many ways, this was like exploring a new land to me. That characteristic added to my ability to let go of my preconceptions and existing emotions, and simply drink in the visual manna here.

Here are my favorite images in the book:

Moonrise, Mono Lake, California; Ancient Spruce-Fir-Hemlock Forest, Eagle Creek Gorge, Oregon; White Sands Evening, White Sands, New Mexico; Oregon Seastacks Cannon Beach, Ecola State Park, Oregon; Autumn Dawn, Millpond State Park, North Carolina; Cadiz Valley, Mohave Desert, California; Cypress Dawn, Realfoot Lake State Park, Tennessee; White Canyon Sandstone Labyrinth, Utah; Mendocino Tidal Pool, California; Dead Horse Point, Utah; Delicate Arch, Moonrise, Arches National Park, Utah; Eagle Creek Punchbowl, Oregon Cascades; Atchafalaya, Louisiana; Pinus Aristata, White Mountains, California; Birth at Puu'loa, Hawaii; Anasazi Cliff Dwelling, Utah; Cahokia Mounds, Illinois; and Sand Reed, Minnesota.

Perhaps the phrase that best captures this book is that it contains "some harmony to contemplate in beauty and ancient light the measured pace of the universe."

Having seen what the proper light and setting can do for your spirit, I suggest that you launch a search for places that evoke similar emotions in you and times when you can experience those feelings in private. Then set a regular schedule of visitations, to add a "living meditation" to whatever else you do to get in touch with yourself and the universe.

Shed the unimportant to step into the permanent grandeur of nature, and be refreshed in your humanity!

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply beautiful, September 3, 2001

By	Marceau Ratard (Metairie, LA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Ancient America (Hardcover)

David Muench is one of the best landscape photographers I've ever come across. If you can find this book the pictures will blow you away. It is worth the price. I'm an okay photographer, this guy is so good it's hard to believe. These are literally some of the most beautiful pictures I've ever seen. If you see this book on one of the clearance racks at a book shop, get it quick