Cities, Towns and Wilderness: Color Photographs of the American West

Take a journey around the American West (without the dangers of backcountry travel) through over 50 photographs by Eric Thome, who incorporates his skills as a trained fine artist and graphic designer into his photography. Featuring: Advertising Signs, Architecture, Automobiles, Cultural, Ephemera, Industrial, Nature, Railroad, Sculpture, and Wildlife photos. Photographs in this volume range from cities in the far west to remote ghost towns (in the process of vanishing from existence). With authentic western locales from the states of California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington. The historical eras of the subject matter photographed in this book span from Pre-Columbian to the 20th Century. Native American subjects include rock art and Ancestral Puebloan architecture. Other cultural photos vary from a Basque aspen arborglyph (these are disappearing as the trees reach the end of their lifespan) to San Francisco's Chinatown.

Eric Thome grew up outside Baltimore, Maryland. Eric was accepted into Maryland Institute College of Art, as a Graphic Design major. The Foundation (Freshman) year required classes in: art history, sculpture, color theory, drawing, and painting. The following year Eric moved to Portland, Oregon, and transferred to Pacific Northwest College of Art. After a graphic design internship during his junior year, Eric changed his major to Inter-Media Art (taking printmaking, photography, and video classes). Eric started with Black and White Photography courses in the darkroom at PNCA.Eric began photographing what was remaining at ghost town sites in 2005. These vanishing places fueled Eric’s drive to document the remains of the American West as artistically as possible, despite potential constraints of a location (such as modernity, junk or other non-historic distractions). Natural lighting, weather conditions, wildfire smoke, and other issues also affect on-location shooting.Beginning with his Portland darkroom days, Eric was also interested in photographing historic buildings, signs, and sites from living towns and cities (which are also being vandalized and disappearing).Eric has traveled to places he finds exciting and awe-inspiring, taking him through more beautiful scenery than he has time to photograph during thoroughly planned trips.