Like many western boomtowns at the turn of the twentieth century, Spokane, Washington, enjoyed a lively theatrical scene, ranging from plays, concerts, and operas to salacious variety and vaudeville shows. Yet even as Spokanites took pride in their city’s reputation as a “good show town,” the more genteel among them worried about its “Wild West” atmosphere. In Show Town, historian Holly George correlates the clash of tastes and sensibilities among Spokane’s theater patrons with a larger shift in values occurring throughout the Inland West—and the nation—during a period of rapid social change. George begins this multifaceted story in 1890, when two Spokane developers built the lavish Auditorium Theater as a kind of advertisement for the young city. The new venue catered to a class of people made wealthy by speculation, railroads, and mining. Yet the refined entertainment the Auditorium offered conflicted with the rollicking shows that played in the town’s variety theaters, designed to draw in the migratory workers—primarily single men—who provided labor for the same industries that made the fortunes of Spokane’s elite. As well-to-do Spokanites attempted to clamp down on the variety theaters, performances at even the city’s more respectable, “legitimate” playhouses began to reflect a movement away from Victorian sensibilities to a more modern desire for self-fulfillment—particularly among women. Theaters joined the debate over modern femininity by presenting plays on issues ranging from woman’s suffrage to shifting marital expectations. At the same time, national theater monopolies transmitted to the people of Spokane new styles and tastes that mirrored larger cultural trends. Lucidly written and meticulously researched, Show Town is a groundbreaking work of cultural history. By examining one city’s theatrical scene in all its complex dimensions, this book expands our understanding of the forces that shaped the urban American West.

The Pioneer Photographer is the story of William Henry Jackson¿s love for the outdoors and of his adventurous life photographing the Rocky Mountain West during the late 1860s and 1870s. His meticulous descriptions of the rugged and treacherous landscapes, and the efforts required for capturing the images on glass plates, edify the reader about the enormous challenges presented by early photographic technology.

Film photography has recently witnessed a significant renaissance—and not just among those who have previously shot with film. Interest in film photography and analog photography has also grown enormously among those who have only ever shot digitally. In The Film Photography Handbook, 3rd Edition, authors Chris Marquardt and Monika Andrae speak to both types of film photographers as they offer an easy-to-understand, complete resource to shooting film. In this updated and expanded edition, they address today’s working climate, including such topics as the hybrid film/digital workflow, the digitization of negatives, and using smartphones for light metering and to assist in film processing.

This book is intended for anyone who is curious about film and analog photography, whether you need a refresher course or are discovering this wonderful format for the first time. You’ll learn how easy it is to shoot and process black-and-white film at home, and that just a little special equipment is needed to get into film photography.

You’ll learn all about:

• The important differences between film and digital photography

• Numerous film cameras, as well as how to buy a secondhand camera

• Film formats, from 35 mm to medium format and large format

• Exposure settings, tonal values, and tonal representations in different types of film, from color negatives and slides to the enormous spectrum of black-and-white films

• Processing film, covering everything you need to know: equipment, chemicals, and workflow

• Scanning negatives to bring your analog photography into a digital workflow

• Both presenting and archiving your prints and negatives

Working in such an “analog” medium requires a unique approach to photography, and it fosters a completely different form of creativity. Working in film and embracing analog photography can also prove to be a great inspiration for your own digital photography, as well. The Film Photography Handbook, 3rd Edition covers it all—from the technical to the creative—and will have you shooting film in no time, whether it’s with an old rangefinder, an inexpensive Holga, or a medium-format Rolleiflex or Hasselblad.

This book is a call to action, providing the tools photographers need to help preserve threatened species and environments around the world or in their own backyards. Author/photographer Boyd Norton has spent over four decades successfully doing just that, and is credited with saving millions of wilderness acres through his photographs and personal activism. In this book, Norton shares his approaches to designing powerful images that communicate the threats facing wilderness areas, wildlife, and people around the world. His expert advice guides you step by step through the process of capturing effective photographs and implementing them to educate and build support for these critically important issues. Also featured are images and techniques from acclaimed conservation photographers Amy Gulick, Alexandra Garcia, Alison M. Jones, Joe Riis, Bob Rozinski, and Wendy Shattil.