LAND: Photographs That Make You Think

A provocative look at our relationship to the natural world from bestselling author and art writer Henry Carroll, with images from today’s most innovative photographers.

How do the most diverse and relevant voices of contemporary photography respond to the urgent issues of today? In this series of small, insightful, and beautifully presented books, Henry Carroll, the bestselling photography writer of the last decade, unpacks the ideas behind images to reflect on race, gender, faith, inequality, beauty, politics, and our shifting relationship to animals, nature, and the environment.

Land: Photographs That Make You Think considers humanity’s changing relationship with the natural world, a relationship that has seen us edge further away from real encounters. The photographs explore how the sublime can be commodified, packaged, and distributed, leading to an alarming emotional distancing. With images from a diverse group of photographers, Carroll explores the impermanence of borders, the human reaction to scenes of devastation on Instagram feeds, and the many variables that inform one’s relationship to land. He considers how a photographer’s response to landscape is subjective, full of meaning that’s colored by their own psyches, foibles, fears, and hopes. With captivating and striking photography, Carroll invites the reader to contemplate how their inner world influences their interactions with the natural world.