Overview

A wild paradise of woodlands, beaches, and tidal marshes off the Georgia coast, Ossabaw Island is a heritage preserve that will forever remain undeveloped. Visitors rarely leave untouched by its tranquillity and mystery. Many are struck by the sense of solitude it imparts—even though Ossabaw lies just twenty miles south of Savannah. The book’s three creators have powerful connections to Ossabaw: Jack Leigh’s photography and James Kilgo’s nature writing have led them there, while Alan Campbell has taken part in the artists’ retreat known as the Ossabaw Island Project. This retreat has been a source of inspiration and rejuvenation for such attendees as the writer Annie Dillard, architect Robert Venturi, composer Samuel Barber, and sculptor Ann Truitt. Leigh’s black-and-white photographs, Campbell’s watercolor and oil paintings, and Kilgo’s essay offer three highly individual interpretations of a similar experience—that of deep personal connection with Ossabaw’s timelessness and beauty. In “Place of the Black Drink Tree” Kilgo’s meditations on the yaupon holly tea used ritually by Ossabaw’s aboriginal inhabitants lead to other thoughts about the island’s natural and human history. Leigh and Campbell's images depict scenes of the contemporary Ossabaw that evoke a landscape as it may have appeared to its Native American, and even its earliest European, inhabitants: deserted beaches strewn with massive pieces of driftwood, palm trees tilting toward the water’s edge, an alligator lounging on the bank of a sandy creek, a flock of seabirds winging across a marsh.

Full Product Details

9780820326429

Table of Contents

Reviews

Here, a triumvirate of artists catches the strange elegance of Ossabaw, one of Georgia's little-known barrier islands--its layers of history and grand wilds, its reckless stillness and stirring shadow, its mystery and manners. In a collaboration of ink, color, and film, these gifted artists show how a place can spark human genius. Think of this book as a shrine of imagination to Ossabaw. All and yet nothing is revealed. May Ossabaw ever remain so beautifully untouched.

Author Information

"Jack Leigh is the author of five highly acclaimed books of photography, including ""The Ogeechee"" (Georgia). Leigh lives in Savannah, Georgia. James Kilgo (1941-2002) wrote extensively about nature, the landscape, and our connections to them. Five of his books, including ""Colors of Africa,"" are available from the University of Georgia Press. Alan Campbell, who is based in Athens, Georgia, has served as a visiting artist on scientific expeditions with the National Science Foundation and the Organization for Tropical Studies. The authors' royalties from the sale of this book will go to the Ossabaw Island Foundation."

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available