I've gone to great lengths to get these pictures. Sometimes I've woken long before dawn to climb to the top of cliffs to take a photograph at first light. I've hiked deep into green gorges in the summer heat and captured the sunlight filtering through the trees to the forest floor. I've waded through streams and clambered up waterfalls to find the right angle on the misty cascade filling the frame of the picture.
Whether you're from Tennessee, have had the chance to visit my state, or just enjoy the beauty of nature, I think you'll find these images will remind you of the incredible natural treasures that exist just off the beaten path. And they may inspire you to take your own journeys!
A Little About Me
I have been a professional nature photographer for over 30 years and have loved every minute of it! People keep asking me where my favorite place to shoot is. I tell them honestly my favorite place to shoot is wherever I am. I also continually try to explore and discover new ways of capturing images. The images that I create grow from what I call "emotional discovery". This is the discovery of previously unseen patterns and arrangements of colors and shapes in nature that create a strong emotional state within us when they are revealed. Each image is made more unique by the integration of lighting conditions that come together at the moment of the photograph's conception. It is here in the space created by natural conditions and emotional discovery that my images take shape. My time spent in nature instills a great sense of child-like wonder, harmony and oneness in me, and through my photographs I hope to share that special feeling.
I have 400,000 + images in my files, have had over 12,000 images published and 22,000 fine art prints installed all over the world. To view more of my work visit my fine art print website at www.byronjorjorian.com.
Text And The Writer
The book includes not only my photographs but also text written by the writer Paul Kingsbury. He has written several books about country music, The Grand Ole Opry, the classic Nashville poster shop Hatch Show Print, and the Woodstock festival, and he has edited many more. Since 2006, he has written for The Nature Conservancy, one of my favorite conservation organizations, which protected many of the special places I feature in this book.
Like me, Paul loves spending time in the outdoors, and he has hiked, camped and canoed all over Tennessee. He has personal experience with many of the places I feature in this book.
Paul's text includes an introduction that explains my background in photography and my vision for nature photography. The text also includes detailed descriptions of the places I've photographed and technical notes on how I set up the camera for each shot, such as aperture and shutter speed.
The Photographs
Some of the photographs are familiar and iconic images from my collection, and others have never been shared before. All of them represent wild and sometimes remote places that I have been privileged to discover for myself, capture with my camera, and bring back to share with you.
The book showcases more than 90 of my favorite photographs of wilderness scenes across Tennessee. It will be the first book to collect my own handpicked images. Working with a skilled book designer, I have assembled my images as a kind of photographic journey from Reelfoot Lake in West Tennessee to the Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee, winding across the state from one special place to another.
The Idea For The Book
A few years back, I had a very successful exhibit at the Nashville International Airport. The exhibit was entitled A Walk Across Tennessee and as you walked through Concourse C, you took a visual journey from West to East Tennessee past 34 large-scale prints. The curator of the show at the time said that the exhibit was one of the most successful shows they had ever hosted! While the exhibit was underway we got a large number of inquiries from viewers asking when we were going to do a book. The idea has been in the back of my mind ever since. Over the years, my library and experience as a photographic artist have grown and so has the idea of doing a book that would give the viewer a similar experience to that exhibit. So......I am having this book laid out in a manner that I hope will give you the feeling that you are walking through an art show much like the original exhibit.