“ The Memory of Stone takes readers on a visual tour of the Colorado Plateau’s ‘sonic landscapes’—from Utah’s Monument Valley to the Petrified Forest. . . . Schroeder’s black-and-white photographs offer a surprisingly intimate portrait of these otherworldly places.—High Country News
“Erv Schroeder’s captivating images of undomesticated lands, coupled with poetry by native authors, lead you on an expedition through history and humanity. By viewing these mesmeric rock formations, the reader gains a more transcendent idea of time and nature. These intimate black-and-white photographs resonate on a profound philosophical level.”—World Literature Today
“Stunning. . . . The Memory of Stone: Meditations on the Canyons of the West is one of those compendiums that will linger in the mind long after the book has been closed and set back upon the shelf.”—Midwest Book Review
“Erv Schroeder’s infrared photographs of rock formations stand luminous and regal against the desert canyon backdrop. He eloquently frames these aged sentinels to add presence to a tranquil landscape. In The Memory of Stone, Schroeder makes a distinctive contribution to further the aesthetic legacy of landscape photography in the American West.”—Paula Tognarelli, Executive Director and Curator, Griffin Museum of Photography
“In Erv Schroeder’s recent photographs the viewer is treated to a meditation on the mysteries of the West through an intensive gaze into its rock formations. The diminutive prints are nothing less than gemlike in their rich tonalities and truly unique perspectives on what makes this landscape such a potent subject for photographers.”—Walter Mason, Director, Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University
“From the moment we encounter the title of this book, the concept of memory begins our journey to the past. Erv Schroeder’s interpretive photographs, combined with insightful, complementary texts by Native writers, remind us that this is a landscape that has witnessed history and the enduring impact of both nature and civilization.”—Mary Virginia Swanson, author and educator
“This amazing book will repay long exposure and repeated return. There are some suggestions in the text about how to read these rocks, but there’s also an openness that will invite you in.”—Bill McKibben, from the Foreword
“ The Memory of Stone presents evocative portraits of boulders in balance, arches, cliffs, and spires. Embedded in the volume are significant reflections by Native American writers on time, identity, and endurance. Many of the photographs, especially those of the isolated balanced rocks, present a contradiction of precariousness and permanence. Implicit in several of the accompanying narratives is a sense that the cultural landscapes share something of this persistence in a precarious environment.”—Eric Henderson, dean of Arts and Sciences, Northland Pioneer College
“The Memory of Stone is a volume to be savored slowly and to be revisited frequently. The photographs are at once intimate and grand. The accompanying texts deserve multiple readings as they reflect upon the complexity of time and identity, human and geologic.”—Eric Henderson, dean of Arts and Sciences, Northland Pioneer College
