Book Review: Texas’ Big Bend

It’s Fall and that means…the Texas Book Festival is near at hand. I chair the authors and artists who speak at the Austin Museum of Art. This year, as always, we have some great books to be presented. I thought I’d introduce you to Texas’ Big Bend: A Photographic Adventure from the Pecos to the Rio Grande by Michael H. Marvins.

Texas’ Big Bend is a beautiful book that covers, not just the Big Bend National Park, but cities like Marfa and Langtry. It’s a vast area: 800,000 acres of parkland and surrounding territory. Marvins doesn’t just take pictures. According to the foreward, he uses many different cameras and “the application of more than one technique or printing process.” On the publisher’s website, I found this:

All Of Mike Marvins’ royalties are being contributed to Friends of Big Bend National Park and Friends of the State Ranch State Park.

There are stark photos of crooked fences in front of grassland that stretches forever. Pictures that could be art on your wall, like the one of sandstone, millions of years old, that formed back when Big Bend was under the sea.

One that, to me, was both funny and sobering had a four word caption: “RV Park, Study Butte.” There are no RVs in the picture. The butte stands in the back ground. In the forefront is a sign that reads: “One Hour Parking.” My thought was, man if I drove that far, I’d stay more than one hour. Then I noticed the shadow the sign made on the ground - a cross.

I’ve never been to the Big Bend area. I’d love to go. Especially after seeing this book.

Mr. Marvins will be speaking at AMOA on Sunday, November 1, from 11:00 a.m. - Noon. He’ll be signing immediately afterward.