Changing Moods
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Changing Moods

Sixty Years in Black and White

Foreword by Alan Ross

Photographs by John Alexander Dersham

Title Details

Pages: 224

Illustrations: 180 b&w art photography

Trim size: 12.000in x 10.000in

Formats

Hardcover

Pub Date: 07/06/2021

ISBN: 9-781-5883-8432-4

List Price: $40.00

Imprint

NewSouth Books

Changing Moods

Sixty Years in Black and White

Foreword by Alan Ross

Photographs by John Alexander Dersham

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  • Description
  • Reviews
Changing Moods, John Alexander Dersham’s second collection, showcases powerful, haunting black-and-white art photography from six decades of work. Inspired by his teen experience with a simple box camera, and the encouragement of several significant mentors, he has dedicated his life to capturing the physical world through the lens. Changing Moods chronicles Dersham’s personal growth as a photographer and artist, tracing his work from the darkroom to the gallery. To achieve exquisite image quality, he relies on elbow grease and old-fashioned methods. Throughout his shooting career, Dersham has awakened before dawn to get into position to catch the perfect light, lugging his bulky and complex large-format cameras to locations across the United States. The breathtaking results range from austere and dramatic landscapes to the poignancy of the everyday, revealing a master photographer at work.
A book of John Dersham's black-and-white photographs is long overdue. Dersham is a master, one of only a handful of American photographers with the artistic talent and technical proficiency to use light and shadow to create enduring images of Americana.

—David Haynes, photographer, author of Motorcycling Alabama

Our world is filled with pretty but disposable images on social media. That's what makes a journey through John Dersham's thoughtful body of work a refreshing reward. Dersham, a true master, sees and captures the art in the everyday world around us in rich, detailed, deeply informed black-and-white photographs that invite longer exploration.

—Art Meripol, professional photographer, formerly of Southern Living

As captured in this magnificent new book, John Dersham's body of black-and-white work spanning sixty years is a masterclass in technique and beauty. He continues to influence and inspire generations of photographers who stand at his heels in awe.

—Beth Cowan Drake, photographer, founder of Facebook's Alabama the Beautiful

John Dersham's lifelong commitment to the large-format camera has resulted in a large body of black-and-white images that transcend the ordinary. Never has his talent been more evident than as seen in his new book, Changing Moods.

—John Lucas, large-format fine art photographer, woodworking artist

The talent and passion John Dersham has for the art of photography is evident not only in his masterful landscape photographs but in his quiet and reverential portraits of the common man. Rather than use an easy-to-operate digital camera, John is dedicated to a cumbersome large-format film camera, providing viewers of his work with exquisite print detail and revealing his exquisite artistic vision. His new book is a testament to the sixty-year evolution of a true photographic artist.

—Chuck Kimmerle, fine-art landscape photographer, educator, and author

About the Author/Editor

JOHN ALEXANDER DERSHAM'S photography career began on November 1, 1960, when he took his first pictures with his father's 1930 Kodak Brownie. From that modest start, his art has continued without pause for fifty-nine years. Meanwhile, Dersham made a career in the photography industry, serving in management at Eastman Kodak and its subsidiaries in multiple states for more than thirty years. His last Kodak job brought him to Alabama, where he fell in love with the state's natural beauty and varied terrain, as well as its people and places. Dersham's affinity for Alabama inspired his first published collection of photographs entitled My Alabama: John Dersham Photographs a State. He and his wife, Kyle, live on Lookout Mountain near Fort Payne in northeast Alabama. They have two children and two grandchildren.