"Big Bend is otherworldly,"

[SHANEA]

http://www.mywesttexas.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17379626&BRD=2288&PAG=461&dept_id=475591&rfi=6

10/26/2006
Texas writer, photographer collaborate on coffee book about Big Bend  
Stewart Doreen<br>Managing Editor
Midland Reporter-Telegram  

In their third book together, writer Joe Nick Patoski and photographer Laurence Parent have captured the essence of the Big Bend.

"Big Bend National Park" (University of Texas Press, $29.95) is a fascinating collaboration pairing Patoski's words of love for the region with the exquisite outdoor photography of Parent. Together, the two paint a timeless tribute to a part of Texas both misunderstood and revered.

"Big Bend is otherworldly," Patoski writes early in the book. "It's one of the last places left that's a long way from everywhere, so far away that people get the feeling they've fallen off the edge of the earth. No one thinks twice when Big Bend is described as a place where water runs uphill, where rainbows wait for rain, where the river lives in a big stone box, where mountains go away at night to play with other mountains and where the lies told about Texas are true. The sense of space is intimidating. The landscaping is overpowering, swallowing up and diminishing humanity to its proper scale." sidebar by ShaneA - well said!

To someone who has never been here, Big Bend is nothing if not impossible to describe. Writer and photographer work together to lay out a picturesque photographic and historic story map of just how grand and vast this space is. They say writers -- and certainly photographers, too -- write best about that which they are most familiar, and it is obvious both Patoski and Parent have an inherent love for the park and borderlands.

Parent's use of the sunlight dancing off the natural formations of the park works to perfection. Photos of a south rim view of Sierra Quemada (Page 3), Burro Bluff (, Rio Grande ruins at Solis (20-21) Punta de la Sierra (51), Juniper Canyon (55) Rio Grande at Langford Hot Springs (90) and the Chisos at sunset (99) are nothing short of breathtaking.

"Big Bend National Park is a very spiritual place," said Patoski, who first visited the park almost 50 years ago when he was 5. "The older I have gotten, the more I've felt spirituality in nature. Going to Big Bend is like a pilgrimage to a cathedral, a place so big, so all-encompassing, it swallows me up. Big Bend renders humanity as miniscule and inconsequential, which is a humbling feeling. I wish there were more places like it to remind us of our place in the universe. Big Bend is a reminder that we are not the big dogs on this earth; the Creator is.

"I develop a deeper sense of place about Big Bend every time I go there. Every visit is a revelation. I keep my eyes and ears open and try to keep my mouth shut."

Patoski, Parent and two others completed a 70-mile hike across the park almost two years ago, a journey that created an even deeper love for the area. Patoski, though, said the two of them had already been talking about working on a book about Big Bend even before their walking trip. A ranger had told the two of them that the park was deserving of its own coffee table book. That ranger was correct, as this book proves many times over. It is available at major retailers and Internet booksellers.

Patoski, who also has chronicled the lives of Texas musicians Stevie Ray Vaughan and Selena, is currently working on a biography of country music legend Willie Nelson, which he hopes to have completed by next year.

Parent says it's the rugged terrain and the offering of mountains, rivers, springs and the desert that provides for such beautiful photographs at Big Bend.

"I first visited Big Bend when I was a little kid," Parent said, "We camped at the Basin campground. I was quite young, so my memories of the trip are hazy. I do remember an owl hooting all night from the top of a nearby power pole one night. It kept my dad awake all night. I didn't visit again until my freshman year in college and I went several times when I was in college."

Parent said after beginning his photography career he began coming to the park one or more times every year.

Patoski and Parent also have collaborated on "Texas Mountains" and "Texas Coast," both published by the University of Texas Press. Parent also has authored seven hiking guides for Falcon Guides, including "Hiking Big Bend" and "Hiking Texas" and more than 20 other books featuring his photographs.
 
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