On Firm Ground - Tapa dura

"Kanfer's atmospheric photographs evoke the quiet drama of Midwest prairies, the immensity of skies and cornfields, the poetry of changing seasons, moods, twilights, textures... Poignantly, unexpectedly beautiful." -- Publishers Weekly "This coffee-table book ... preserves the fundamental beauty of the Heartland in 114 color landscapes... These images range from fields furrowed in geometric precision to the dark silhouette of farm buildings against a brilliant crimson sunset... Should make transplanted Midwesterners ache with homesickness." -- Midwest Living "The photographic artistry that is the hallmark of Larry Kanfer translates into images that are sometimes moody or fragile, other times stark or awash with color... His eye for the beauty of the Illinois prairie [has] captured the imagination of thousands." -- Illinois Quarterly "Kanfer's gift is that he can endow the ordinary landscape ... with an almost magical sense of beauty." -- Judith Loy, Associated Press "Kanfer has conjured up images that are uniquely and distinctly American... He manages the not-inconsiderable feat of making one long for the Middle West." -- Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World "Deeply and lusciously beautiful... The colors are so rich, the compositions so striking, the effect so lovely... More than 100 photographs [are] ... reproduced with startling quality and depth of color." -- Virginia Quarterly Review "The images were photographed for their beauty: the patterns formed by nature or by row crop plantings, the way early morning light or twilight glow plays off trees, buildings, or landforms... A joy to contemplate." -- The Annals of Iowa

Widely celebrated for his poetic images of the heartland, Larry Kanfer returns to familiar ground in this bounteous collection of new photographs. Eagerly awaited by Kanfer's many admirers, "On Firm Ground" reveals a deepening and maturing of the photographer's gifts. To open "On Firm Ground" is to enter a deeply loved and meticulously observed country, a land generous with its gifts and unforgiving in its climate, a land that yields its beauty only to the patient observer. In the deep grain of plowed fields, the hypnotic grace of tall grasses, the texture of weathered barn wood, Kanfer harvests all the subtlety of color and season and amplifies the quiet elegance of the region. As in his earlier volumes, "Prairie Escapes" and "On Second Glance", Kanfer brings the understated and unexpected beauty of the Midwest to the fore. In the clean lines of field and horizon, in the vast expanse of a threatening or brilliantly clear sky, in the pinpoint of light from a farmhouse window that fends off the darkness pressing in on all sides, Kanfer's images capture the living, breathing exchange of human and natural energies that animates the heartland. Ranging through the seasons and throughout the Midwest, "On Firm Ground" is an exhilarating celebration of the subtlety that distinguishes the prairie from any other place.