Shadows of Love, Shadows of Loneliness: Volume One: Photographs: 1980-2020

Book Synopsis: In this landmark collection, William T. Vollmann offers a kaleidoscopic retrospective of the visual artwork he has produced over four decades, with new commentary from Vollmann on his process, inspiration, and the many intersections with his writing. The celebrated author of over twenty-five books (among them the National Book Award-winning novel Europe Central; the seven-volume Rising Up and Rising Down, based on Vollmann’s career as a war correspondent; and the two-volume climate change investigation Carbon Ideologies), Vollmann’s equally ambitious and prolific career as a photographer, printmaker, and painter reflects the artist’s deep interest in people existing on the margins, a profound empathy for his subjects, and the humility and generosity to meet them on their terms.

Shadows of Love, Shadows of Loneliness includes Kodachrome slides of Afghan Mujahideen from 1982; a handmade watercolor sketchbook from Subarctic Canada, complete with inscriptions to Vollmann from local Inuit teenagers; gum bichromate prints of American landscapes from Maui to Mount Desert Island; silver gelatin portfolios of insurgents, refugees, prostitutes, police, and criminals all over the world; photogenic drawings of Tahitian women; transgender self-portraits of “Dolores”; Bible woodblock prints in which God and everyone else is female; acrylic paintings of California landscapes; cyanotypes, platinotypes, salt prints, and gold-toned Vandykes, to name just a few.

Complementing these selections is a series of essays commissioned especially for this book to lay out Vollmann’s views on what photographs can and should say, how he chooses what to represent (beauty, suffering, compassion, love, desire, ideology), thoughts on photographic consensuality, and any number of technical descriptions. Particularly useful for Vollmann fans and scholars are the cross-references between these artistic and photographic projects and his books.