Tuscany: Wandering the Back Roads, Vol. 1

The land of Tuscany has nurtured and inspired artists for centuries. In Tuscany: Wandering the Back Roads, Volume I by Paula Chamlee and Volume II by Michael A. Smith, the glorious tradition continues and is enhanced in their deeply personal and beautiful photographs of one of the most alluring and romantic places in the world. In the spring of 1999 and 2000 and the fall of 2001, Smith and Chamlee shipped their old Land Rover to Europe, a vehicle they configured to accommodate their large-format camera equipment and camping gear. They then drove to Italy, where they traveled together, yet worked separately while exploring the landscape and the small towns and villages of Tuscany each recording their own visual responses to a land they had come to love. Their photographs are the culmination of those three extensive trips: from the quarries in the Carrara region in the north to the old Etruscan towns in the south and from the Val di Chiana and Cortona in the east to the Island of Elba off the coast to the west. Their photographs are full of warmth and life, yet demanding in their complex visual elements. Selections from each of the photographers are here collected in this extraordinary two-volume set of books. Volume I contains Chamlee’s 8×10, 5×7 and 4×5-inch photographs, along with an essay by the distinguished Curator of Photography, Robert Sobieszek, a foreword by the noted writer, Ferenc Mate and a preface by photographers. Volume II is a long-format book containing Smith’s 8×20-inch photographs.