The Granite Avatars Of Patagonia
"Patagonia has a keen, close observer in Tom Reed.
His feeling for the landscape and its wild power comes through in his photographs and writing and in the questions he raises about ourselves as natural beings acting in a natural world."
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--Yvon Chouinard (Patagonia Inc)
Eric Hoffer Award Winner
This book retails for $49.95.
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significant discounts are available
for those purchasing prints.
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"Tom Reed’s The Granite Avatars of Patagonia offers a powerful and moving description
of one of the world’s most awesome sights: the granite towers of Patagonia,
notably Cerro Torre and El Chaltén.
Mindful of global warming, deforestation, species extinction, and pollution,
the narrative nevertheless manages, in inimitably beautiful English,
to focus on the awesomeness, beauty, intimacy, and sacredness of nature
in one of its most dramatic moments.”
–Thomas Berry (ecotheologian, geologian and cultural historian)
"Even a cursory glance through this book you're holding will reveal the uniqueness of its author's approach to travel literature. Sophisticated black and white images alternate with Reed's description of the adventures that made those images possible, photos and text nestled in a clean, Zen-like, high concept design. His writing persona hovers somewhere between ecospiritualist and son of the Beat generation, with an occasional nod to Hemingway.
This is Tom Reed's debut performance in publishing but certainly not his last. He is a born traveler and a writer's writer, and one who gives confident vent to a stream-of-consciousness style because he trusts his own voice to speak his own truth. His audience--from world-class climbers to arm-chair travelers--will listen, enjoy, and be moved to think more deeply about how and why they, too, are awed by nature's wonders.
Almost inevitably, Reed's contemplation of these granite wonders (in Argentina's Parque Nacional Los Glaciares) leads him to view them as avatars, messengers of an intelligent and evolving universe, here to guide us toward the realization that nature, the universe itself, is divine--a provocative proposition to be sure. Regardless of your spiritual beliefs, Reed's explorations of both inner and outer landscapes will cling to the corners of your consciousness. You might never again look at a breathtaking landscape without recalling Reed's lens, his sensibilities, and his definition of 'awe'."
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--Irene D. Thomas Ph.D.
author of Olaf Palm, A Life in Art
“I have often gone to Tom's website for inspiration and enjoyment.
His work is powerful and clean.
This book reveals his intimate relationship with the granite spires of Patagonia,
and his choice of black and white capture provides a unique perspective.
I hope one day I can be shooting at his side in places of such awesome beauty...”
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-- G. Brad Lewis (internationally recognized nature photographer)