Path of Beauty - 9780312598358

From sweeping vistas to intimate details of life along the Colorado River, master printer and photographer Christopher Brown takes readers on a beautiful, powerful journey through a previously undiscovered Grand Canyon.

Christopher Brown has seen the Grand Canyon, inside and out, like no other, and his photography reveals a landscape of surprising and visually stunning delights.  A lifelong explorer, Brown first hiked across the Canyon when he was fifteen.  After high school, an Outward Bound course inspired him to move there and spend the next forty years guiding mountaineering and river trips from Alaska to Ecuador.  He was a boatman in the Grand Canyon for about twenty of those years, and has rowed thirty-five two-week trips through the Canyon on the Colorado River.

Brown carried cameras on all of these adventures and taught himself photography.  Slowly his interest shifted from the adrenaline of the rapids to the aesthetics of the Canyon, and the quiet tranquility of remote grottoes.  He evolved as a photographer, becoming entranced by the visual experience, the beauty of being in the Canyon.  He never knows what to expect when he returns to the Canyon, just that it will be different–and that is what keeps him coming back for more!

Complimenting the seventy-four full-color photographs in the book are a series of essays that begin by exploring the geological processes that made the Canyon the natural wonder that it is today, as well as the adventure and excitement that accompany life on the river as a boatman.  Mirroring the extremes of life, the text shifts from adventure, to beauty, discussing the physical and emotional components of visual perception.  An explorer of both exterior and interior landscapes, Brown strives to reveal layers of meaning and beauty in life that are often obscured by our preconceptions and habitual ways of perceiving the world, our relationships and ourselves.

Through stunning photography and an engaging text, Path of Beauty brings together an imaginative perspective on adventure, beauty and reflection in the wilderness.  It is an evocative visual reminder of the importance of wild landscapes, where people can go to explore, discover, and grow wise.  It will resonate with anyone who has ever wanted to leave the clamor of the modern world behind and immerse himself in the fresh, restorative splendor of the wilderness.