Park Place Out West represents work in the national parks, monuments, and wilderness areas of the American West between 1992-2019. Published by George F. Thompson in association with Furthermore, a program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund, and the Center for the Study of Place.
112 pages, 63-tritone photographs, 11.875” x 9.5”
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Finalist: Photolucida—Critical Mass 2023
Winner: Next Generation Indie Book Awards Travel/Travel Guide Category for 2023
Finalist: Photography Book of the Year Award FOREWORD Review of Indie Books for 2023
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“It is, perhaps, one of the most enjoyable books of American nature photography ever made… Stunningly printed, and with great attention to toning, it at times feels like somebody gave Ansel Adams a Xanax.”
— B.A. Van Sise for New York Journal of Books
PARK PLACE OUT WEST named a Favorite Photobook of 2023 at photo-eye Santa Fe
From George F. Thompson Publishing Website...
(http://www.gftbooks.com/books_Heberlein.html)
A sometimes humorous but always perceptive look at how we experience national parks and monuments out West.
The National Park Service was established by an act of Congress in 1916 to "preserve unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the National Park System for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations." This directive to protect wilderness yet provide accessibility to it without somehow compromising the integrity of the natural resources can be a self-fulfilling contradiction and an arena for conflicting priorities.
In Park Place Out West, photographer David Heberlein explores the tension between access to and enjoyment and preservation of America's public lands—from the Badlands to the Pacific Coast. For nearly three decades he traveled throughout the American West and explored 35 of its famous national parks, monuments, landmarks, forests, and recreation areas. His photographs allude to human influence through the marks we make on public lands—whether temporary or permanent—and through the presence of visitors who appear in numerous shapes and sizes, experiencing and performing a variety of sightseeing activities. These shifting scenarios provide a compelling photographic survey of the many roles that national parks, monuments, and landmarks play and the foundational need to balance the human impact on nature with the preservation of wild places.
Park Place Out West features sixty-three tritone photographs by Heberlein along with his introductory essay and an engaging afterword by Scott Herring, who has written extensively on national parks. The book is a welcome addition to a long tradition of photographers, artists, scientists, and writers heading out West to see, explore, and interpret America's national treasures.”
MORE REVIEWS
"David Heberlein's Park Place Out West offers a fresh meditation on the complex relationship between humans and what we term 'wilderness.' This quest for proximity to the natural world has led us to seek out the wild, yet we do not wish to leave behind our creature comforts. Heberlein's wry photographs reveal our longing to be a part of, instead of apart from, nature. Often cloaked in humor or irony, these images are emblematic of our hunger for natural vistas coupled with our collective fear of destroying the planet, as if to experience it for the last time."
— Michelle Van Parys, Professor of Art Emerita, College of Charleston, and author of The Way Out West: Desert Landscapes •••"The American wilderness, if it ever truly existed, is long gone. The health of planet Earth has been severely compromised by human actions, but, as seminal landscape photographer Mark Klett has reminded viewers for decades, there is still so much beauty. And the human desire to go adventuring and to experience the wonders of the world with our own eyes and feet continues on. Especially if there is good parking and decent restrooms. Heberlein's elegant and gently humorous photographs wonderfully capture the moment in which we find ourselves, burning fossil fuel to get out into the landscape and take selfies in sanctioned scenic spots. Yes, the saguaros are interspersed with utility poles, but he doesn't begrudge us the thrill of discovery on our own terms. Park Place: Out West is a distinctive contribution to the ongoing dialog about the human relationship with nature and a reminder to all of us to get up off the couch and see what's out there!"
— Katherine Ware, Curator of Photography, New Mexico Museum of Art, and author of Man Ray, 1890–1976 and Earth Now: American Photographers and the Environment •••"Over many years, I've watched David Heberlein patiently pursue a visual examination of a particular western place. The idea of those places as preserved acreage of wilderness runs counter to the position of them as theme parks. Within that dichotomy Heberlein has focused on the 'act of looking,' offering moments of quiet discovery and wry incongruities. That he has accomplished this with grace and insight is a testament to his photographic skills and his tenacity."
— Wayne Gudmundson is Professor Emeritus of Photography, Minnesota State University Moorhead, and author of A Song for Liv. …
“Especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and academic library American Photography collections… [this] will prove to be a welcome addition to a longstanding tradition of artists, writers—as well as amateur and professional photographers heading out West to see and explore and interpret America's national treasures.”
— Midwest Book Review…
The Midwest is full of terrific photographers whose work exists outside the long shadow of the noisy world of art book fairs and social media. David Heberlein is one such—a guy who taught for years and just kept going out and taking beautiful, carefully composed photos, without, apparently (to paraphrase Isak Dineson), hope or despair. Park Place comprises more than 25 years of photos Heberlein made in American’s National Parks and public lands, and it’s a quiet and quietly subversive body of work that sort of screams old school, which is something I think the photo world could use more of.
— Brad Zellar is a writer who frequently works with photographs (and photographers). His most recent novel is Till the Wheels Fall Off (Coffee House Press).…
Heberlein’s debut monograph collects his b/w photos of American National Parks made over the course of several road trips between 1992 and 2019. “My parents instilled in me a love of travel, of being adrift,” he explains in the intro. Lucky him, the wanderlust stuck through adulthood. All sites are in western states. Since the parks are naturally photogenic, his pictures have a majestic quality in the rough tradition of Ed Weston or Ansel Adams. They can’t help it. But unlike those purists, Heberlein was interested in people too. Almost every photo includes human activity, either in the form of park visitors or infrastructure. Distant roads are a common element in several images, while others make good use of interpretive signs for comic effect. In many photos he takes up position directly behind park visitors, juxtaposing sweeping views with bystander posteriors. These might be a commentary on tourism, voyeurism, or perhaps a form of meta-selfie. Not sure, but in any case the whole book has a witty spirit which lifts it above the great boring mass of calendar-ready nature photography. Throw in a nice feel for serendipitous composition, and the book is pretty strong. Pictures from Death Valley and Mt. St. Helens, for example, layer odd shapes across space with Friedlanderish precision. The printing is great, and the production is top-notch. Obviously a lot of time and effort went into this thing. This is a book of wilderness scenes for armchair flâneurs.
— Blake Andrews is a blogger writing about photography and photography books.