A Certain Alchemy is the name of Keith Carter’s new book. It has an introduction by Bill Wittliff, another renowned Texas photographer who founded the Wittliff Collections at Texas State University – San Marcos, and is the author of the recent bestselling book from University of Texas Press, A Book of Photographs from Lonesome Dove. There is also an afterword by Patricia Carter, Keith’s wife, who offers another perspective on his work. Carter has made himself a major name in fine art photography circles in the last twenty-odd years, and this new book will attest to his relentless creativity. Photography has to do with what is chosen to be inside the frame, what is left out of the frame, how the image is lighted, and what the perspective is, among other things. Carter has been called a “poet of the ordinary” and he has taken mundane happenings around his home in East Texas and made these seemingly everyday things look extraordinary. His photographs of animals are legendary, see the book he did with Texas in 2000 called Ezekiel’s Horse (Booklist called the book, “Majestic, intelligent, sculptural”), and here he does not disappoint readers. He expands his range of subjects and locations to put together a gallery of photographs that is haunting, arresting, and attempts to seeks out the profound hidden meanings of the real world.
You can view photographs by Carter and get some deep background on this key artist by going to his web site http://www.keithcarterphotographs.com/ -- a Keith Carter book is always entertaining to look at closely, and you never know quite what to expect from his camera. A Certain Alchemy is his tenth book, and here we see a visual artist at the absolute top of his game.
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