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Traveling Light is the personal story of Deborah DeWit Marchant’s fascination with the power and mystery of light and her passionate search to capture that mystery with her camera. As she travels across the United States and through such countries as Scotland, France, and Western Australia, she photographs the atmosphere of a place—landscapes and interiors. DeWit Marchant’s rich prose and forty-seven color photographs illustrate the depths of the creative process.
“Deborah DeWit Marchant has spent her life looking for a way to capture changing light. In this, her first book, she writes about her life-long journey as a photographer. Her text accompanies stunning photographs, taken from Oregon to Scotland to Australia. And indeed, it is clear that Marchant’s penchant is for light—how it resides in windows or doorways or stairwells, how it illuminates the fog rising from the ocean or the trees.” More...
—Jessica Powers, Newpages.com
“Marchant masterfully captures light falling on a flower, a chair, a meadow, a door.... Her subjects are beautiful and limitless...” More...
—Duffie Bart, StoryCircle.org
“Simply put, Traveling Light is a brilliant work. The highly gifted Deborah DeWit Marchant brings to the reader her exquisite prose, which coalesces with and confirms her stunning photography. This heartfelt treatise of the artist’s journey is a book for those in life dedicated to the discovery of hidden beauty, those who would be artists, and those who wish to purposefully glimpse into the fascinating, curious and sometimes murky labyrinth of the creative process.”
—Carlos Eyles, author/photographer
“Deborah DeWit Marchant’s ethereal photographs have always taken my breath away. Now, in Traveling Light, her words share the same poignancy. DeWit Marchant’s recollections of a developing esthetic offer a poetic coming-of-age memoir that articulates a joy of discovery—from nature to art to life. What an exquisite little book!”
—Eleanor Edmondson, president of Bas Bleu, Bookseller-by-Post
“Traveling Light: A Photographer’s Journey by Deborah DeWit Marchant is a sensuous and passionate book. DeWit Marchant’s sensual words capture moments which a camera cannot see—the shock of cold water, the rasping sound of gravel, the pounding heart, roots and fingers thrusting into warm black soil. And her photographs are luminous with subtly shifting colors, soft mysteries which cannot be put into words.
“I have lived with some of Deborah DeWit Marchant’s photographs for years and am always struck by how much like paintings they are. This book hints at qualities of a mind and heart which have been drawn and guided through life by the light which paints such images—light made almost tangible by mist, by cloud, by window and sea. Clearly, DeWit Marchant’s philosophy would not attempt to explain it, but by offering this evocative collection of words and pictures, she helps us experience what has led her and her camera into what she calls ‘the mystery of the way light lay on a body and created a spirit.’
“This is not a philosophical book, yet philosophy suffuses every page. It is not only an autobiography, though it chronicles the inner life of the artist’s passionate quest for ‘a mood, an atmosphere to be discovered, respected and shared.’ It is, perhaps, an illustrated meditation on the ways and means of light in all of our lives.
“Because the photographs are presented without captions (though the titles are easy to find at the end of the text), readers are allowed to experience these rich images on their own terms. Photographs are evocatively placed alongside text, but they seldom illustrate passages directly. And occasionally we are given pages with no text, just the photographic paintings urging us to pause, to look, to muse. DeWit Marchant calls us to muse with her on the ways we cooperate with light—to weave body and spirit, experience and memory into the ‘wellspring of our personal chronicle and the secret code that guides us.’ The gift of this book is the glimpse it gives into the personal chronicle and the secret code of one who has created such beauty as the photographs of Deborah DeWit Marchant.”
—Phyllis L. Thompson, Ph.D., Medieval Studies, Cornell University
“Deborah DeWit Marchant has an eye for the evocative image that stills the heart and fills the soul with longing. Traveling Light draws the reader into the development of the artist so that one actually feels the intensity of the quest and the joy of discovery.”
—Open Spaces Magazine (Volume 5, Issue 4, 2003)
“Readers receive fine insights not only into Marchant’s beautiful photos, but the methods and inspirations which fostered them. Highly recommended.”
—The Midwest Book Review
“Marchant’s 47 color photos in the book are far removed from the blaring bright tones in ‘coffee table books’; they are subtle, yet never weak; precise, yet not hard-edged. Each one is a jewel. Her work reminds one again and again of the delicate yet powerful watercolor statements by J.M.W. Turner—all light and mystery, revealing complexity through simplicity.”
—Diane Wagner, Writers NW (Volume 17, No. 4, January 2004)
“The inspiring prose is perfectly paired with richly atmospheric photographs.”
—Bronwyn Prohaska, Gracious Living (Volume 1, No. 3, 2004)
“An impressive selection.”
—Seattle PI
“May-June Picks”
—Small Press Review
Click here to view sample pages from the book (pp. 40-41 and 66-67).
(in Acrobat Reader format)
Excerpt Copyright © 2003 by Deborah DeWit Marchant
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Deborah DeWit Marchant