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Mon - Sat Crazy from the Heat: A Chronicle of Twenty Years in the Big Bend
by James H. Evans
605 E Holland Ave • Alpine University of Texas Press, Austin (2011) ISBN: 978-0-292-72659-8
$55.00, hardcover with dust jacket, 192 pp., 131 color and black and white photos
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Welcome You
12
by Crystal Allbright
C
razy from the Heat,
photographs
by
James H. Evans,
not only chronicles 20
years in the Big Bend, but
20 years of photographic
evolution, its rapid transi-
tion from film to digital –
the resistance to the inte-
gration. It is also a journal
of Evans’ journey from
professional photographer
to artist. Inspired by pho-
tography’s tenuous hold
on the status of art since
the turn of the 19th centu-
ry, Evans takes a hand at
leading us through this
century, and he’s not hold-
ing back in this new port-
folio.
Crazy from the Heat is
threaded with notions
from Evans’ first book, Big Bend Pictures, published
by the University of Texas Press in 2003. Amidst
his beautiful portraits and studies of landscapes,
you find hints of his work to be carried on
throughout his career – a streaking star here, a
flashed ocotillo there. Even a few honored
deceased animals. In the afterword for Crazy from
the Heat, Evans explains, “Describing myself as an
artist has always been somewhat uncomfortable
for me, because an artist is not necessarily one
who paints, or makes sculpture, or photographs,
or whatever. Being or becoming an artist, to me,
is more about approach. I think it is something we
are all born with and either develop through time,
or resist or ignore.” So now, as Evans gets a little
more comfortable, he opens his engaging ideas to
study.
The dust cover explodes with color in rows of
a hot afternoon panoramic desert, while opening
the pages reveals more of his exploration. A bull
snake shares the texture of the road, like Evans’
other reptiles have shared the texture of uphol-
stery. A few pages later, he spotlights a small ani-
mal on a white stage – emphasizing the sharp
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points of grayscale in a
Texas horned lizard or the
limestone and igneous col-
ors of a hog nosed snake.
A dust devil swirls, and
soon John L. Guileman
holds his hat against an
impending storm. Yes,
heat often precedes the
hope of rain here, the
build of enormous clouds
with threads of lightning.
Lightning across layers of
blue landscape or through
a rain-drenched wind-
shield or intertwined with
the mystery at the
Marathon Motel sign.
Evans is expanding his
repertoire.
His work at night is
quite intriguing. Opening
the shutter for extended
intervals, he paints the plants and rocks with light,
so they come alive against the darkness. Like a
dirt-road drive home, headlights briefly expose an
ocotillo to remind one of waving tendrils of life in
ocean depths. Often he lets the light from the
moon and stars do the work, as when they reflect
off the churning water of Rough Run Creek as it
flash floods at midnight. While making long expo-
sures with film cameras, he shares the time with a
digital camera. Among the panoramic images
featured in the February issue of Texas Monthly, he
explains the use of digital for “Chisos at Night.”
“Digital sensors are much more sensitive to light,
and a moon can provide plenty of light for expo-
sure.” These images emphasize a timeless quality,
as you try to decipher night from day. The streak
of a star or a mention in a title may be your only
clock.
If you’re unable to experience the full effect of
Evans’ images in a gallery or a museum, then this
hardcover book will be the next best place to lay
your curious eyes. Just shy of an 11-inch-by-14-
inch frame size, this book opens into a large space,
giving comfortable room for many formats – from