Missouri Landscapes

"In this magnificent book, Oliver Schuchard provides more than sixty-five exquisite black-and-white photographs spanning his thirty-eight years of photography. In addition, he explains the aesthetic rationale and techniques he used in order to produce these photographs, emphasizing the profound differences between, yet necessary interdependence of, craft and content. Although Schuchard believes that craft is important, he maintains that the idea behind the photograph and the emotional content of the image are equally vital and are, in fact, functions of one another. The author also shares components of his life experience that he believes helped shape his development as an artist and a teacher. He chose the splendid photographs included in this book from among nearly 5,000 negatives that had been exposed all over the world, from Missouri to Maine, California, Alaska, Colorado, France, Newfoundland, and Hawaii, among many other locations. Approximately 250 negatives survived the initial review, and each of those was printed before a final decision was made on which photographs were to be featured in the book. The final choices are representative of Schuchard's work and serve to substantiate his belief that craft, concept, and self must be fully understood and carefully melded for a good photograph to occur. This amazing work by award-winning photographer Oliver Schuchard will be treasured by professional and amateur photographers alike, as well as by anyone who simply enjoys superb photography."--Publishers website.

A renowned nature photographer provides more than fifty breathtaking color images of Missouri's dramatic and beautiful landscapes, with each image accompanied by an appropriate quote to illustrate the relevance of nature in our lives.

"Plein air landscape painter Billyo O'Donnell traveled Missouri, creating a painting, on location, representing each of the state's 114 counties, plus the city of St. Louis. These paintings celebrate the beauty and diversity of Missouri's landscapes. The accompanying essays by Karen Glines describe the history and highlights of each county"--Provided by publisher.

Geologic forces raised the Ozarks. Myth enshrouds these hills. Human beings shaped them and were shaped by them. The Ozarks reflect the epic tableau of the American people—the native Osage and would-be colonial conquerors, the determined settlers and on-the-make speculators, the endless labors of hardscrabble farmers and capitalism of visionary entrepreneurs. The Old Ozarks is the first volume of a monumental three-part history of the region and its inhabitants. Brooks Blevins begins in deep prehistory, charting how these highlands of granite, dolomite, and limestone came to exist. From there he turns to the political and economic motivations behind the eagerness of many peoples to possess the Ozarks. Blevins places these early proto-Ozarkers within the context of larger American history and the economic, social, and political forces that drove it forward. But he also tells the varied and colorful human stories that fill the region's storied past—and contribute to the powerful myths and misunderstandings that even today distort our views of the Ozarks' places and people. A sweeping history in the grand tradition, A History of the Ozarks, Volume 1: The Old Ozarks is essential reading for anyone who cares about the highland heart of America.

Historic landscapes have often been ignored in historic preservation. In 1987, Dr. Charles L.W. Leider asked design professionals and the public to nominate significant historic cultural landscapes in Oklahoma. As a result of this effort, 47 significant historic landscapes were identified. Students in Dr. Leider's historic preservation course at Oklahoma State University (OSU) conducted an inventory and analysis of these sites and, over a 25-year period, selected and completed 18 case studies as measured and interpreted drawings, including Villa Philbrook, 101 Ranch, Oklahoma Civic Center, and Utica Square in Tulsa. All of the case studies have been recorded with the Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS) of the US National Park Service and placed in the US Library of Congress as well as being presented in this book.

The extraordinary life of a captivating American artist, beautifully illustrated with his dreamlike drawings Much of Joseph Elmer Yoakum's story comes from the artist himself--and is almost too fantastic to believe. At a young age, Yoakum (1891-1972) traveled the globe with numerous circuses; he later served in a segregated noncombat regiment during World War I before settling in Chicago. There, inspired by a dream, he began his artistic career at age seventy-one, producing some two thousand drawings over a decade. How did Yoakum gain representation in major museum collections in Chicago and New York? What fueled his process, which he described as a "spiritual unfoldment"? This volume delves into the friendships Yoakum forged with the Chicago Imagists that secured his place in art history, explores the religious outlook that may have helped him cope with a racially fractured city, and examines his complicated relationship to African American and Native American identities. With hundreds of beautiful color reproductions of his dreamlike drawings, it offers the most comprehensive study of the artist's work, illuminating his vivid and imaginative creativity and giving definition and dimension to his remarkable biography.