Joel Simpson's FACES IN THE ROCKS: Beyond Landscape to Psycho-Geological Photography pushes the boundaries of original landscape photography. It starts with extraordinary landscapes-caves, drone views, and more-then launches into imaginative domains of entirely natural abstract compositions and figuration ("Faces" in the rocks). These surrealist-tinged images, always faithful to their found forms (NO AI), reveal unique photographic perspectives and original ways of seeing that expand the horizons of photographic imagination.
For those seeking creative photo approaches in a crowded field, this photographic vision book shows how to rise above convention by enhancing creative vision and unlocking untapped originality.
The images themselves range among the perverse, ironic, grotesque, monstrous, prophetic, satirical, enchanted, mythological, paleontological, erotic, scientific, commercial, and cartoonish. The accompanying text provides an analytical and historical framework, offering challenges to traditional landscapes while proposing fresh avenues for creative expression.
Finally, the book embraces photographic fiction: real rock formations (and dried mud), captured through a fisheye lens and recontextualized as imaginary heavenly bodies-asteroids, moons of made-up planets, and "Anthropocene Ruins" of a fearsome future.
A practical how-to section guides photographers to the best locations for discovering subjects and demonstrates editing techniques critical for transforming raw rock and ice into powerful artworks. The book concludes with brief color photo essays on six of the author's favorite image-hunting grounds, plus a bibliography and site list.
