Hard Traveling

Rezensionen / Stimmen

"It's the powerful photographs of the workers and their surroundings - 'a commonwealth of toil' - that keep you turning the pages for fascinating glimpses into a neglected aspect of the building of America." - Parade. "This splendid collection ... comprises about 200 rare and dramatic photographs of life and work in the Pacific Northwest between 1880 and 1950. Schwantes has woven a rich tapestry from the archives of pioneer photographers... The pictures ... take us beyond and behind the promotional scenic photographs of lush crops, booming cities and flourishing industry. They show the disasters, accidents and, above all, the faces of those otherwise anonymous people who made up the endless turnover of labour characteristic of frontier areas... Not least, the volume is an important contribution to the history of American photography, because Schwantes is concerned to examine how the photographers themselves perceived the life and work they captured in their images." - Times Literary Supplement.