Faces in the Rocks

Joel Simpson's FACES IN THE ROCKS: Beyond Landscape to Psycho-Geological Photography pushes the boundaries of landscape photography. It takes you on a remarkable journey, starting first with extraordinary landscapes, including those in caves and from drones. Then it launches you into imaginative domains of entirely natural abstract compositions in various styles and then figuration's (the "Faces" in the rocks), all found in natural formations, surrealist-tinged images no one has seen before, while remaining faithful to their found forms, that is, NO AI. If you are a landscape photographer seeking new ways to express your originality in a crowded field, this book will show you how to rise above the crowd. The images themselves range among the perverse, ironic, grotesque, monstrous, prophetic, satirical, enchanted, mythological, pale-ontological, erotic, scientific, commercial, and cartoonish. The accompanying text provides an analytical and historical framework for what amounts to challenges to conventional landscapes. Finally, the book squarely embraces photographic fiction: real rock formations (and dried mud) captured through a fish-eye lens and re-contextualized as imaginary heavenly bodies in fictitious outer space: asteroids and moons of made-up planets, plus "Anthropocene Ruins" of a fearsome future. The how-to section at the end guides photographers to the best locations for finding subjects and illustrates the editing techniques that are critical to making powerful art works from rocks and ice. In the back of the book are brief (color) photo essays on six of the author's favorite stalking grounds for the images in the book. Also included are a bibliography and site list.

About the Author :
New Jersey native JOEL SIMPSON has been photographing since he was a teenager in the 1960s, turning pro in 2002. Since 2002 there have been over 50 shows and publications of his art in the US and abroad, including Paris, Barcelona, and Rome. His work has been published in the US, Belgium, France and India, and he has received numerous awards. His 2019 mostly color landscape book focusing on remarkable geology, Earthforms: Intimate Portraits of Our Planet, received enthusiastic reviews plus the prestigious 2019 Nautilus Gold Award for Art and Photography.His new book, Faces in the Rock: Beyond Landscape to Psycho-Geological Photography, systematizes his discoveries in the aesthetics of abstractions and figurations in natural formations, and concludes with a tongue-in-cheek collection of imaginary extra-terrestrial landscapes and dystopian future cityscapes.Simpson lives in Union, New Jersey.

Review :
"Joel Simpson demonstrates that we shape and are shaped by land outside and inside. Ranging from abstraction to surrealism, through associative explorations that render the unconscious conscious, he invites us on fantastic journeys, offering us stimulating perspectives and tools designed to enrich our relationships with land/ourselves." -JOHN PAUL CAPONIGRO "Simpson's breathtaking images-manifesting 'psycho-geological photography'-stand as a testament to the profound imprint the earth leaves on the human mind and the power of photography to reveal such truths. It is the rocks that man has found universal forms and faces. In fact, the human psyche itself mirrors the layers and crust-from the conscious surface to its enigmatic core. To witness these photographic revelations is nothing short of groundbreaking." -ROGER BALLEN "[Simpson's images]...are nothing if not irresistible visual love letters to our weary planet's enduring mysteries and its charms." -EDWARD M. GOMEZ, editor, brutjournal.com "Playgrounds for the Mind reveals Joel Simpson as part genius, part crazy man with his intense passion for what he calls geological art photography in near and far world locations. The images are gorgeous, strangely compelling beauties rooted in Surrealism. They beckon me to their sites which I know I could never find; Simpson has saved me the trouble and makes them even more beautiful than they probably are." -HARVEY STEIN, educator, author, photographer "Nature, at its most non-human magnificence, is not malevolent, it is indifferent. In Joel Simpson's view it is also a place where the human can interact with the great inhuman forces by offering imagination a playground....Simpson travels all over the earth to find the most extraordinary and bizarre geological sites, then to photograph their most complex rocks. With help from Carl Jung, André Breton, or your own dreams, you can find-at some unconscious or conscious depth-familiar déjà-vus from the history of art or the nightmares of your tribe." -ANDREI CODRESCU, novelist, poet, essayist "Simpson claims a Surrealist pedigree to his current work that may reveal mysterious figures in rock formations, but whether they're there or not, the work is striking." -LYLE REXER, critic, and author "Playgrounds for the Mind is a terrific mind-opening (and eye-opening) work. Congratulations. [Simpson has] invented a whole new way of seeing." - RUSSELL BANKS (1940-2023), novelist "Always a courageous visionary." - CAROLEE SCHNEEMANN, (1939-2019), avant-garde, multi-media, feminist artist (from an email before the book came out)