Consuming The American Landscape

Photographs by John Ganis

Essay by Robert Sobieszek

Poems by Stanley Diamond

Afterword by George Thompson

Consuming the American Landscape assembles a series of approximately 80 color photographs by John Ganis, who has spent nearly two decades documenting the traces of industry and development in the American landscape. The impact of this work is explored and further contextualized through a collection of poems by Stanley Diamond, an introductory essay by Robert Sobieszek, and an afterword by George Thompson. The book is published by Dewi Lewis Publishing, and is scheduled for release in Fall 2003.

The introduction by Mr. Sobieszek, Curator of Photography at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, explores historic changes in our attitudes toward the ideas of "nature" and "culture" as seen in a broad sweep of photographic and literary interpretations of landscape throughout the 19^th and 20^th centuries. He emphasizes that the environmentally concerned artist working today must understand and transcend the dichotomy between these two forces.

Six poems by the late Stanley Diamond, of The New School for Social Research, were written in response to Ganis’s photographs, and a selection are presented here. His poetic contribution provides a sustained meditation on American culture as it relates to the theme of environmental concern. These writings, completed shortly before his death in 1991, represent his last poetic work.

The richly illustrated Consuming the American Landscape will appeal to a wide audience, ranging from members of the photographic and literary community, to historians, environmentalists, and students of American culture. An absorbing and intricately layered book, integrating photography, poetry and critical writing, Consuming the American Landscape assembles a provocative document of land use in America.

http://www.johnganisphotography.com