Georgia O’Keeffe once described her artistic muse New Mexico as “more sky than earth.” As photographer Rob Atkins discovered over two decades, beneath that cerulean stretch of ether, the golden sun spills across the sumptuous adobe architecture and the sounds of the Rio Grande reverberate throughout the multifaceted geography of northern New Mexico.
Following in the footsteps of visionary artists—including Agnes Martin and Ernest Blumenschein—Atkins has documented the soul of the region from the Church of San Geronimo in Taos Pueblo to Camel Rock in Tesuque. As a travelogue of Atkins’s artistic and spiritual pilgrimage in photographs, Earth River Sky encapsulates the fundamental elements of fire, earth, water, and air that converge to form the sublime architecture and landscape found only in northern New Mexico. In Earth River Sky, Atkins takes readers through every corner of the mesas, across the serpentine arcs of the Rio Grande, and between the shadows of the vigas, or roof beams, reaching across the earthen walls of Santa Fe, illuminating the profound beauty of New Mexico in the Southwestern United States.
Rob Atkins has been following his passion for photography for over forty years. Born in Vancouver, Canada, he moved to New York City in the mid-1980s to serve as studio manager for photographer Pete Turner. Atkins began his freelance career a few years later with clients including Harvard University, The New York Times, Microsoft, and Starbucks Coffee. Rob currently lives in Vancouver with his wife, Louisa, and divides his time equally between architectural and interior design photography and his personal work.
ISBN: 978-1-943876-06-8 | 160 pages | 12 x 9 inches | Jacketed hardcover | 126 four-color images
