‘Light and Life in the Western Desert’ is a journal of photographic imagery of the wilderness areas of the western United States. The area is a favorite for Emmy award-winning photographer Mark Andrews. His home, centered in the vast Mojave Desert of the southwestern United States, gives him a deep connection to the elements that can seem at once both unforgivingly harsh in nature, yet richly generous in color and form.
This book contains special sections with photos and the stories behind them. In one section, he documents the devastating Carpenter 1 forest fire that destroyed thousands of acres of bristlecone pine (the world’s oldest living trees) in the Spring Mountain Range environment. Fortuitously, Mark is the last known photographer to see the forest, and completed a portfolio of rare photographs, returning from its peaks the day before lightning struck . Another section features an autumn photo exploratory expedition through the far-flung central valleys and mountain ranges of Nevada.
These 160 pages contain nearly 200 color and black and white photographs. Mark’s images reflect what he not only sees, but also experiences as a way of life.
With a thousand mile diameter range as his traveling circle, Mark has recorded fascinating photographs of the wonders of nature. Vibrant sandstone cliffs, barren playas, verdant pine and aspen forests, lakes, streams, wildflowers and mining camps are a part of the Western Desert. All are pictured here.
To really feel part of the image, he invests time on location in advance of his planned field sessions. "This is not a controlled experience," he says. "Every moment, the light changes - day or night. The image comes when nature decides to make a gift of it - like a revelation." And the rest of the photographic expression is revealed upon study and experimentation back in the studio. He carries within himself an abiding love for the American west. You’ll notice that . . . while viewing what he saw . . . in this book.