Swan’s Fine Books
1381 Locust Street, Walnut Creek
Saturday, November 23rd, 2013
1:00pm – 3:00pm | FreePlease join us on Saturday, November 23rd, to meet the photographer and author of “Mount Diablo, The Extraordinary Life and Landscape of a California Treasure“.
This book is a first-of-its kind collection of original fine art photographs and panoramic creations of one of California’s premier landscape photographers, Stephen Joseph. Mr. Joseph has been hiking and photographing Mount Diablo in Northern California’s Contra Costa County since 1985, so drawn is he to the complex mountain’s unparalleled natural beauty and intriguing geological faces.
Dominating the landscape at 3,849 feet, Mount Diablo lives in the heart of exploding populations and encroaching development. Yet, the mountain is home to a rich diversity of life and landscapes, and is popular among people looking for solitude, history, or adventure.
From thousands of photographs, Joseph has chosen 181 stunning panoramic images to escort readers on a journey through this remarkable land. He has painstakingly reworked and remastered every photograph, from the earliest portraits taken with his Kodak panoramic camera built in the 1800s, to his most recent panoramas created with digital camera and software technologies. In doing so, he is able to present a compelling body of images of quite unexpected beauty and quality, and the first ever artistic compilation that captures Mount Diablo in such grand style and with such single-minded focus.
Supporting text by San Francisco Bay Area writer Linda Rimac Colberg offers descriptive and intriguing background on Mount Diablo, with glimpses into its storied history as a geological wonder and cultural icon. With imagery and imagination, Ms. Colberg profiles the mountain, the photographer, and the mountain life of one family, the Greens of Berkeley, who had a home designed by famed Bay Area architect William Wurster on Mount Diablo from 1938 to 1965.