This book contains a selection of images embellished with poetry to underscore the importance of what I saw and felt. It is the American Southwest as seen through a lens, looking beyond the obvious, exploring every nook and cranny... Occasionally folks would stop by to chat, or watch me set up a camera. Some would ask: ‘What sort of things do you like to photograph?’ My reply was usually (never meant flippantly) ‘anything standing still or moving – or that moves me.’ Well, America did move me and the outcome is here in a few words and pictures. My hope is that they might encourage others to visit the Southwest, to see and feel some of its magic...
About the Author
George E. Todd
GeorgeTodd
Hochstadt, Bavaria, Germany
Born in 1925 in Grimsby, England I soon showed artistic aptitude and won a scholarship to study graphic design – studies disrupted by the war, and service in Royal Air Force. After the war I worked on missiles and the Skylark research rocket. In 1972 I was offered a job in the German Aerospace Research Organization, the NASA of Germany. The change of life-style in Bavaria triggered me to take photography seriously, making close-ups of Alpine flowers for my wife. This developed into a fascination for detail and still life, as well as landscapes, making images featured in my exhibitions and several books. We made many journeys around the Greek islands, France, Italy, Spain & Portugal, shooting literally acres of film. I have often said that if a motif presents itself suddenly ‘out of the blue’, I see it intuitively as a graphic image or some abstract design – a reaction difficult to describe and almost impossible to teach others. I photograph anything that stands or moves, or moves me.