Hopi traditional elder Thomas Banyacya once described the American Southwest as "the spiritual center of our continent." Author, photographer, and adventurer John Annerino retraces ancient trails to show us why this is so. Through recent and historical photos, essays, and literary quotes, he takes us across what the Spaniards often feared as despoblados, or uninhabited lands, from Old Mexico to the Four Corners of ancient cities, painted deserts, and trilingual cultural landscapes-some of the most inaccessible land on the continent. Juxtaposed with tales of his own perilous excursions, the book contains oral histories and remarkable images of terrain that few of today's tourists have ever seen. Told from a current point of view, this throwback to the days of Geronimo and Navajo headman Manuelito will appeal to adventurers, historians, and those interested in the mesmerizing mystique of our own American outback.

From the supernal peaks of sacred temples to the depths of roaring river rapids, author/photographer/adventurer John Annerino takes us off the Grand Canyon's tourist grid to retrace the footpaths and rough-water passages of its earliest explorers. Spectacular photographs and stories of Annerino's own dicey expeditions in the canyon and on the Colorado River are juxtaposed with historical tales, illustrations, and black-and-white images taken by pioneering photographers. Annerino visits the ancient sites of native peoples who roamed the far corners of this otherworldly abyss, and in vivid prose provides firsthand descriptions of the hidden landscapes explored by Spanish missionaries, scientists, National Geographic Society parties, and women river runners. These trailblazing treks tested their endurance in extreme conditions and, for some, yielded rare plant and animal specimens that were collected for scientific study. Join Annerino on this wild adventure in what National Geographic called the "greatest and most spectacular canyon system on earth."

The Canyon Country of the Southwestern U.S. hosts some of the most unusual and beautiful landscapes and geography in the world. These awesome displays of the sculpture-making capabilities of nature are stunning in their shapes, varieties of color, and the ways in which they capture the sunlight.
Now, John Annerino, critically acclaimed photographer and author gives you the tools to find and shoot these locations. The parks that are covered around this famous Four Corners region of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah include: Mesa Verde, Glen Canyon, Grand Staircase-Escalante, Zion, Capitol Reef, Bryce, Canyonlands, Arches, and Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Annerino will guide you on how to find the precise locations to shoot those postcard-perfect shots and provides tips on timing, lighting, composition, and the story behind the scenery. No visitor to this area should be without it. Full-color throughout.

A stunning collection of unique photographs from America's most notorious "no-man's land."
John Annerino, renowned photographer and author of America's Southwest and Old Mexico, risked life and limb to venture on foot into the most remote, abandoned, and chillingly silent tracts of the Painted, Sonoran, Mojave, and Chihuahuan deserts on both sides of the U.S. and Mexican border. His quest: to capture desert light from the highest summits, the starkest deserts, and the deepest canyons; and to convey the primal beauty of these impossibly rugged, uninhabited lands--these "despoblados"--in evocative essays and haunting photographs.
Regarded long-ago by ruthless Spanish conquistadors and gold-seeking settlers as Terra Incgnita, this region remains largely the same as it was while inhabited by indigenous peoples, who viewed its luminous landscape through a very different lens. To them, the beautiful sierras and captivating stone hoodoos were sacred and familiar, and revered for their omniscient majesty.
Annerino uncannily portrays this awe-striking, sublime landscape through both sets of eyes in "Desert Light," Full-color throughout.

"John Annerino is one of a handful of photographers with a real empathy for the West. His work has an edge to it, reflecting the sheer size and power of his subjecta subject he treats with respect and love. This land, which is so much a part of the American psyche...is as raw and exciting in Annerino's work as it is in our mind's eye." -Newsweek Grand Canyon Wild takes you beyond the handful of scenic vistas which have defined the popular concept of the Grand Canyon. A well-known author and photographer of the American West and old Mexico and other coffee table books, Annerino takes you on a visual and spiritual journey down into the land below the canyon's rims. His photos and prose lead into the heart and soul of the canyon, highlighting the historic expeditions, local history, and legends of Native Americans and explorers alike, who bravely lived, and died, within the canyon's perimeters. Full-color throughout, 4 maps, bibliography, notes to photographs.

John Annerino, famed photographer of the Amerian Southwest, portrays the astonishing beauty of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands and contrasts those with images of the conflict that threatens to destroy them.
These 1,956 miles through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California on the U.S. side and Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, Chihuahua, Sonora, and Baja California Norte on Mexico's side are the beautiful, rugged, blood-stained borderlands that once lured conquistadors, missionaries, scalp hunters, bandits, smugglers, pioneers, and colonists from Spain, Mexico, and the United States.
Annerino canoed the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo del Norte through the legendary Big Bend Frontier, walked treacherous immigrant trails like Arizona's "Camino del Diablo" (Road of the Devil), explored borderlands jaguar country on foot, and came to know the resilient people who live, work, and cling to the traditions on both sides of the border. Along the way he chronicled his perilous journeys through this "geography of chaos," capturing in remarkable photographs and evocative essays the stunning landscapes whose fragile environment is threatened by today's politics.
"John Annerino is one of the handful of photographers with a real empathy for the West. His work has an edge to it, reflecting the sheer size and power of his subject--a subject he treats with respect and love. This land, which is so much a part of the American psyche, now threatened by pollution, by the spread of human settlement, and by exploitation, is as raw and exciting in Annerino's work as it is in our mind's eye."--"Newsweek"

Explore the ancient realm and mysterious secrets hidden within the forbidden depths of Canyon Country.
Renowned photographer and author John Annerino leads you on a riveting journey into the harsh, extraordinarily beautiful territory that is Canyon Country. Stunning photographs and fascinating commentary about such places as Canyonlands, Arches, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, and Zion Canyon National Parks; Glen Canyon National Recreation Area; Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and countless other sites accompany Annerino's exploration of the natural and cultural history of the region.
With suspenseful storytelling and dramatic historical detail, Annerino tells of the doomed expeditions of early American pioneers, gold seekers, and uranium hunters; pays homage to the region's natural and spiritual significance to its Native American inhabitants; and recounts his personal explorations into the canyons. "Canyon Country" leaves a lasting impression of this awe-inspiring region, a place that has been the inspiration for centuries of myths and legends. Full-color throughout.

In his latest book, John Annerino--famed photographer and writer of America's desert southwest and old Mexico--went in search of clues that would unlock the mysteries of places sacred to the native peoples of the Colorado Plateau, Great Plains, sierra Madre, and Sonoran Desert. In the land inhabited for millennia by the Hopi, Navajo, Papago, and Apache--and with the help of native leaders, who guided him to hallowed, secret places--Annerino scaled 13,000-foot mountain summits and descended into shadowy caves; he traced the footsteps of legendary warriors to granite strongholds and traced the handprints of ancient ancestral shamans on cliff walls. Along the way he chronicled his astonishing pilgrimage, capturing in remarkable photographs and evocative words a world that few of us have been privileged to glimpse, let alone partake in.
Many of the lofty spires, towering monuments, and deep canyons that Annerino explored throughout the Great Southwest are familiar sites from Hollywood westerns and are sought out by avid climbers. But these sites are sacred ground to native peoples, and it is that venerated identity that Annerino experienced and conveys in Indian Country. His photographs and essays pull back the curtain on a timeless world and reveal some of the mysteries to be found within. Full-color throughout.