Into the Great White Sands
Award-winning photographer Craig Varjabedian has spent decades photographing the many moods of the magnificent and ever-changing landscape of New Mexico's White Sands National Monument. His photographs reveal snow-white dunes of gypsum, striking landforms, storms and stillness, panoramic vistas and breathtaking sunsets, intricate wind-blown patterns in the sand, ancient animal tracks, exquisite desert plants, and also the people who come to experience this place that is at once spectacular yet subtle. Varjabedian's evocative color images provide the reader with an almost palpable sense of this extraordinary place.
These photographs are enriched by several essays written by Jeanetta Calhoun Mish, noted poet and author; Dennis Ditmanson, retired White Sands National Monument superintendent; Jim Eckles, retired Missile Range public affairs officer; and Craig Varjabedian, the photographer who shares his insights and experiences of photographing this inspiring landscape and offers tips on making better pictures of White Sands.
Put professional equipment into the hands of a master like Craig Varjabedian and he'll find stunning beauty, great recreation, and a few surprises. . . . The pictures truly are the thing. And they are gorgeous.'--New Mexico Magazine
The artist skillfully chronicles his immersion into this breathtakingly vast and strikingly intimate world and reveals the stories of this otherworldly place through emotionally evocative photographs. Varjabedian has suspended in time the many magical moments he experienced while chronicling the unique White Sands landscape.'--The Eye of Photography
Craig Varjabedian is a renowned photographer and author. His most recent UNM Press book, Landscape Dreams, A New Mexico Portrait, won the prestigious New Mexico-Arizona Book Award. Based in Santa Fe, he photographs throughout the American West and teaches at Eloquent Light Photography Workshops.
An Invitation
Tom Charles
Changeless Yet Ever-Changing
Dennis Ditmanson
Photographs of White Sands National Monument
Craig Varjabedian
White Sands Meditations
Jeanetta Calhoun Mish
Photographs of White Sands Missile Range
Craig Varjabedian
The Other Side of the Boundary: White Sands Missile Range
Jim Eckles
Into the Great Light
Craig Varjabedian
Acknowledgments
Bibliography
