The Spirit of the Place
Indiana Hill Country
Photographs by Darryl Jones
Text by Janes Alexander Thom
"Native Hoosier frequently feel embarrassed by the lack of a large-scale grandeur in our state. They too often overlook the beauty that is around them. The beauty of Indiana is often found in its suability which forces the viewer to be more responsive to what is before him." Darryl Jones
Jones sees beyond the surface of nature to the basic elements earth, air, water, and rock. His photograph are " contemplative studies on the metaphysics of nature, the invisible made visible, God's mind revealed," the pre-existing harmony which exists in nature if only we can see it.
Thom's text taking its inspiration from Jones's images, trace the cycle of life from birth in rural Gosport, to journalism in the big cities of the world, and then back again where he found both his voice as a writer and his spiritual rootedness.
"You have roots in a place or you don't: you can't force them. It helps to be born there, though that's not your choice to make. But there are things you do that feed and strengthen these roots.... And then you can die in that place, and if that is the place you want to die, then that's really where your roots are." James Alexander Thom
Darryl Jones has had numerous one-man shows in New York, Boston, Chicago, and Cleveland. His two previous books of photographs, Indiana (1984) and Indianapolis (1990), has been highly successful.
THOM NOVELS GOING ELECTRONIC
Six of James Alexander Thom's historical novels have been selected to be included in Random House's Electronic Book (ebook) publishing program.
The titles chosen for such formats as Amazon Kindle, iPod, and
the Sony Reader are:
LONG KNIFE
FOLLOW THE RIVER
THE RED HEART
SIGN-TALKER
FROM SEA TO SHINING SEA
PANTHER IN THE SKY
The author finds the news good, but ironic, musing, "I use every bit of my skill and imagination to take my readers hundreds of years into the past -- and now they'll visit those old days through the screen of an electronic gizmo."
