Photography

Word on the Street
Photographs by Richard Nagler; Foreword by Peter Selz

Walking the streets with a camera in hand can yield insightful and surprising interpretations of daily life. For thirty years, photographer Richard Nagler has sought out these insights by pairing isolated words found in his environment with random passersby. The...

Rivers of California: Nature's Lifelines in the Golden State
Photographs and text by Tim Palmer

The classic images of California are those of sunny beaches, redwoods, and the Sierra Nevada. Yet California is also a land of rivers--about ninety of them with thousands of forks, branches, and creeks. Totaling 194,000 miles, they cover more area...

Photographer's Guide to Yosemite
Text and photography by Michael Frye

This comprehensive guide will help all photographers, whether beginners or experts, capture the grandeur of Yosemite on film. Every aspect of photographing this magnificent park is covered, including: In-depth descriptions of nearly 40 outstanding locaitons Best months and times of...

Dream Street
Douglas McCulloh; Foreword by D. J. Waldie

"I won the right to name a street in southern California," writes author and photographer Douglas McCulloh. The chance win at a charity event launched McCulloh into an obsessive relationship with a a yet-to-be-developed subdivision in Ontario, California. Curious about...

Granite, Water, and Light: The Waterfalls of Yosemite Valley
Photographs and text by Mike Osborne

Cascading recklessly down towering cliffs, Yosemite Valley's waterfalls bring inspiration and delight to millions of visitors each year. The Valley's waterfalls are renowned throughout the world not only for their height and number but for their astonishing variety—from "ephemerals" that...

First Light: Five Photographers Explore Yosemite's Wilderness
Charles Cramer, Karl Kroeber, Scot Miller, Mike Osborne, and Keith S. Walklet; Introduction by Bob Hansen

Ansel Adams led regular trips into the Yosemite backcountry as part of his efforts to protect this rare instance of untouched nature and, as a result, introduced thousands to its beauty. Following his example, the Yosemite Fund asked five well-known...

Luminous Mountains: The Sierra Nevada of California
Photographs and text by Tim Palmer

Born of an intimate relationship with nature, Luminous Mountains is a spirited journey of discovery up the high peaks and down the wild rivers of the great Sierra Nevada. With 137 stunning photographs and the engaging text of a seasoned...

Yosemite Meditations
Photographs by Michael Frye;
 Foreword by Michael Tollefson

This delightful little book is filled with meditative quotes about nature, the environment, and our national parks. Acclaimed resident photographer Michael Frye pairs each quote with a breathtaking full-color image of Yosemite. The book provides the ideal inspiration for contemplating...

Above All: Mount Whitney and California's Highest Peaks
Photographs by David Stark Wilson with text by Steve Roper; Foreword by Ken Brower

California's "Fourteeners"—Mount Whitney, Mount Shasta, and the loftiest peaks of the High Sierra—have long teased the imaginations and challenged the fortitude of mountaineers. Photographer and mountaineer David Stark Wilson captures the treacherous beauty of these summits and the surrounding panorama,...

Yosemite Once Removed: Portraits of the Backcountry
Photographs by Claude Fiddler; Essays by Steve Roper, Nancy Fiddler, Anne Macquarie, John Hart, and Doug Robinson

This is a series of breathtaking photographs by Claude Fiddler paired with essays that focus on the territory beyond the familiar landmarks of Half Dome and Bridalveil Falls. The book explores Yosemite's undefiled, primordial landscape as preserved through generations. Essays...

Yosemite: The Promise of Wildness
Photographs by William Neill; Essays by Tim Palmer

This fine gift book is an exploration of Yosemite's meaning and prospect for humankind through the insightful essays of Tim Palmer and the renowned photographic talents of William Neill. This collection of over seventy images includes monumental portraits of Yosemite's...

The Yosemite
John Muir; Photographs by Galen Rowell

Here is the complete text of John Muir's classic work about Yosemite, presented with 101 images from the work of renowned photographer Galen Rowell. Muir's writings, supplemented by modern annotations, capture the history and essence of Yosemite. A powerful evocation...

Jazz Idiom: Blueprints, Stills and Frames
The Jazz Photography of Charles L. Robinson; Poetic Takes and Riffs by Al Young

Jazz Idiom showcases the intimate photography of Charles L. Robinson. A friend to many of the jazz musicians photographed, he often caught them in moments of candor: Charles Mingus, goateed and pensive, hunched over a Steinway, phrases dancing in his...

Edges of Bounty: Adventures in the Edible Valley
William Emery; Photographs by Scott Squire; Foreword by National Public Radio’s “Kitchen Sisters”

Join photographer Scott Squire and writer William Emery as they meander—bewildered, impressionable, and wry—through the roads, back roads, and backwaters of America's greatest agricultural valley. Leaving behind the packaged comforts of supermarkets and restaurants, the pair roamed California's Central Valley...

Under the Dragon: 
California's New Culture
Lonny Shavelson and Fred Setterberg;
 Foreword by Andrew Lam

The old paradigm of the melting pot and phrases like "ethnic diversity" can no longer describe the freedom with which more and more Americans are modifying and assimilating cultural elements across ethnic lines. Under the Dragon is a fascinating look...

Structures of Utility
David Stark Wilson

Packing sheds, grain silos, wooden tank house outbuildings, and mine elevators have been eloquently captured by David Stark Wilson's keen, appreciative, and knowledgeable eye. Using a large format view camera, Wilson has elevated these architecturally underappreciated structures of pure utility...

Shades of California: The Hidden Beauty of Ordinary Life
Edited by Kimi Kodani Hill


The Shades project began in Los Angeles in 1991 as a local exhibition of the city's diverse communities. The phenomenal success of this "Shades of LA" project generated interest in a statewide version, the "Shades of California". At "Photo Days"...

Quizzical Eye: The Photography of Rondal Partridge
Elizabeth Partridge and Sally Stein;
 Foreword by Daniel Dixon

Son of the renowned photographer Imogen Cunningham, Rondal began helping his mother with her work at the age of five. At seventeen he became Dorothea Lange's apprentice, and in the late 1930s he began working for Ansel Adams. Intimately associated...

Picturing California's Other Landscape: The Great Central Valley
Edited by Heath Schenker

This lavish, oversized full-color book features 150 years of paintings, photographs, tourist and advertising art, and maps that depict California's Great Central Valley. Through text and images, Picturing California's Other Landscape examines the portrayal of the Central Valley over the...

Past Tents: The Way We Camped
Susan Snyder

From the award-winning author of Bear in Mind: The California Grizzly comes this lighter look at Americans' infatuation with the great outdoors. Mining once again the vast archives at the Bancroft Library, Susan Snyder has mapped out this cheeky yet...

Our People, Our Land, Our Images: International Indigenous Photography
Edited by Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie and Veronica Passalacqua

Whether probing personal identity or exploring the world around them, twenty-six indigenous photographers present images that are fresh, provocative, iconoclastic, surprising, and—in the broadest and deepest meaning of the word—authentic. Their works range from the artful studio portraits of Benjamin...

Ira Nowinski's San Francisco: Poets, Politics, and Divas
Ira Nowinski; Foreword by Rebecca Solnit

"I have written about coteries, but artists like Nowinski represent rovers, people who study and document other communities and make it possible to see something of how culture is born and nurtured in many places. This is art in service...

Deeper Than Gold: A Guide to Indian Life in the Sierra Foothills
Brian Bibby; Photographs by Dugan Aguilar

Brian Bibby brings together the present and the past—both ancient and recent—in a fascinating compilation of anecdote, myth, recollection, and reflection. Five years in the making and the result of almost thirty years of dedicated work among California's native communities,...

Bitter Melon: Inside America's Last Rural Chinese Town
Jeff Gillenkirk and James Motlow; Introduction by Sucheng Chan

At the turn of the century, Locke, located in the Sacramento Delta, was the only village in the United States built and inhabited exclusively by Chinese immigrants. This collection of moving oral histories and stunning photographs offers an unforgettable glimpse...

Yosemite: An Enduring Treasure
Text and photographs by Keith S. Walklet

A beautiful coffee table book with over seventy-five full-color images of Yosemite's scenic gems through the four seasons....