From Deseret News archives:
'View' is a sobering and fascinating look at changes in land
Have you ever stood on a hill, gazing down into a valley strangled by industry and residential chaos and said to yourself, "I wonder what this valley looked like a hundred years ago." If you have (I have many times), then "Third Views, Second Sights" is for you.
According to the publisher, the book is more than landscape photographs of the same place taken many years apart. Essentially, "Third Views, Second Sights" is about our connection to place, time and community, and after browsing through the publication's 256 pages, you will agree.
It all started in the 1970s when the Rephotographic Survey Project, led by chief photographer Mark Klett, re-shot 19th century survey photographs of the West taken by the great expeditionary photographers William Henry Jackson, T.H. O'Sullivan and William Bell. The result was "Second View," published in 1984 by the University of New Mexico Press. "Third View" takes up the survey project 20 years later — again with Klett in charge — and the changes to the land are sobering yet fascinating.
"Third Views" documents 41 sites displayed in three sequences: the original 19th century photograph followed by facing presentations of the modern "Second" and "Third" views. Together, the images offer readers a unique opportunity to gauge the change man has considered necessary, and how it has or hasn't altered the environment.
The book also includes an interactive DVD featuring all the original sites and field notes, providing readers with a chronological account of the work during the three field seasons.
One of the more interesting sections of the DVD is the "Time Reveal" window that looks through one picture into another, each taken from the same position and time of day. To watch one appear as the other dissolves away is most intriguing.
"Third Views, Second Sights" is handsomely printed and bound with 138 duotones (higher quality black and white photographs) and 14 color photographs. It will make an excellent addition to any coffee table and, most assuredly, give many hours of pleasurable reading and looking to anyone fortunate enough to pick it up and browse.
E-mail: gag@desnews.com
