I just came across a new body of work from Joel Meyerowitz that will be published by Aperture this fall. Legacy: The Preservation of Wilderness in New York City Parks contains 250 images from New York City’s parks and wild spaces, and from what little I’ve seen, it looks pretty spectacular. The subject of wilderness contained within urban areas is something I have been fascinated by for a long time, and I’m sure I’ll see a lot of familiar places. The book also contains information about the parks such as maps and historical information.

There is no specific release date mentioned, but it would seem to be sometime in the next month or two to accompany the show at the Museum of the City of New York, which opens October 9. The book looks great, but the box set, which includes an additional book and a signed inkjet print, is at the top of my wishlist.

Catskill Creek, New York, 1845, Thomas Cole

Nature and the American Vision: The Hudson River School at the New York Historical Society, opens September 15, with more than 100 famous paintings by artists of the Hudson River School, including Thomas Cole, Asher B. Durand, John F. Kensett, Jasper F. Cropsey and Albert Bierstadt.

I just found out about this show and I’m looking forward to it. A lot of these paintings are a bit too romantic for me, but they’re beautiful just the same, and I do enjoy looking at and studying them. I’ve been planning to start working in the Hudson Valley again later this month, and I think this show will be an inspiration.

There’s an accompanying book as well.

If this isn’t the sort of thing that floats your boat, you could try Ofer’s list of shows that will open over the next month or so. Simon Roberts, Todd Hido, Sally Mann, and Jeff Wall all look like good bets to me.

Sunburned GSP#164(Mojave), 2007, Chris McCaw

I loved Chris McCaw’s work at this summer’s Transfiguration show at Michael Mazzeo.

Speaking of Michael Mazzeo, be sure to catch the online-only show Arbor, currently on view on the gallery website. I recommend watching it in fullscreen mode, and just let it play. Between this and the last few shows I’ve seen at the gallery, Michael Mazzeo is quickly becoming one of my favorites.

A note to my friends in Montreal: if you haven’t already, be sure to see Expanding Horizons before it closes on September 27. It looks like an outstanding survey of turn-of-the-century Canadian and American landscape art, and I really wish I could see it in person.

Timothy O’Sullivan; A Harvest of Death, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; 1863; Albumen print

Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté; Bend in the River Gosselin at Arthabaska

Alexander Henderson; Victoria Bridge, Grand Trunk Railway; About 1878; Albumen print;

I didn’t hear about this show until yesterday, and then completely by chance. I came across the exhibition catalog in a used bookstore. It was calling out my name from across the room—it’s absolutely gorgeous. I wondered why I had never seen it before and so I looked up the exhibition when I got home; it turns out the book won’t be released for another month. How it ended up in a thrift store in SoHo I’ll never know, but it’s mine now.

Unfortunately I am leaving for a big trip tomorrow and won’t have time to really go through it in depth, but I will report back in September.

I stopped by Michael Mazzeo Gallery the other day based on Jörg Colberg’s recommendation. Transmutations is a group show of contemporary abstract photography featuring the work of Caleb Charland, Christian Erroi, Yong Hee Kim, Sebastian Lemm, and Chris McCaw.

The show is cohesive and the work is excellent. Of the five, however, Sebastian Lemm’s Strata series stood out for me. His black and white images are beautifully intricate and invite repeated viewings. I love the way the multiple exposures reinforce the natural patterns of the work. I paid a visit to Sebastian’s website and also found the images from his Schattenseite to be quite impressive, and hope to see more of his work soon.

strata # 1, by Sebastian Lemm

strata # 6, by Sebastian Lemm

See more from Strata here.

I was also extremely interested to see Chris McCaw’s work in person. The reproductions I have seen online and in magazines have been intriguing, but they don’t tell the whole story. McCaw uses extreme exposures of the sun made directly onto silver gelatin paper to create one-of-a-kind original works. The physical aspect of the process includes burned holes, charred edges, and vintage paper, and seeing them in person made me see them in a new light. In the wrong hands this process could easily become a gimmick, but in this case, the process is integral to the work, and it feels very authentic to me.

More of Chris McCaw’s work can be found online at chrismccaw.com.

The show is open until June 20th, if you are in the metro area during that time I strongly recommend a visit.