High Plains Farm

I have some interesting news to pass along—the deluxe signed and numbered slipcased edition of one of my favorite books is suddenly available, in limited supply. It's not a reprint—it's part of the first edition. The book is High Plains Farm by Paula Chamlee. The project is simple to explain: it's a selection of a large project Paula did to document the prairie farm where she grew up. She used an 8x10 view camera and made contact prints on silver chloride contact-printing paper. The entire project comprises 299 photographs and a full set is housed at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, the gift of a collector when Roy Flukinger was Department Head and Senior Curator of Photography and Film there. Eighty-one of the pictures are featured in the book. The pictures are quiet, loving, nostalgic, and elegiac. I think it's fair to say that it's one of the best books of authentic Americana; of the West; of Texas; of large format; of documentary photography; and on the subject of home. I also love the essays in it. I'd personally rank it among the best books of American documentary photography of the second half of the 20th century. To me the pictures made me feel like I actually know the place in person. The farm is way out on the vast Texas plains, high up in the panhandle, in territory once controlled by the Comanche and the Kiowa. It goes without saying that the work is deeply personal. When the photographs were made, Paula's parents, then in their 80s, were still farming the 1,100 acres by themselves. Paula's parents, who are pictured in the book, are gone now, the old family farm sold. (Her mother lived to be 101.) Paula herself is in her 70s now, I believe. She's a lovely person and a lovely soul, and an accomplished artist.

The show and the book got a tremendous amount of press and attention when it was published in 1996. The exhibition was shown in many major museums, and it traveled for years. It was featured on PBS. Of course I own the standard hardcover, purchased around the time it came out. The deluxe edition, which I didn't know existed until a few days ago, was originally meant for collectors who bought a set of 12 original prints of their own selection; it was included as a complimentary addition to their purchase. Later, the deluxe edition and a print were available for something like $750. I don't think the signed and numbered deluxe edition copies have ever been available alone.

Now they are. I spoke to Paula this afternoon, and she has right around 100 copies left, sitting in storage at the Pennsylvania arts compound and home she and Michael built together. The price is $95 for the remaining standard hardcovers like I have, and $250 for the last copies of the deluxe edition. Both contain the same printed matter, so the pictures are identical in both, and the paper is the same. Paula and her late husband Michael A. Smith were and are book publishers who never made, or make, compromises with excellence; all their books are extremely, some might say fanatically, well printed. The pictures were printed by Gardner Lithograph in California. I also enjoyed Paula's discussions in the book about making the pictures.

This is not a TOP sale and I'm not receiving anything for sales. I've had to lash myself to the mast—I would really love to have one of the deluxe editions. But I already own the standard edition and my bookcases are full and then some. It's just one of my longtime favorite books and I wanted to pass the tip on to you. Here's the order page for both editions.

Mike
Flickr page / New Yorker author page

Original contents copyright 2023 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)

Featured Comments from:

Comments

[Dierk]

A project page link might be of interest: http://www.michaelandpaula.com/mp/html/books_details.php?High-Plains-Farm-1996-11

[Mark L]

I've always liked her work and went straight to the link to order this book, but alas I live in Australia and they can only be shipped within North America.
One very sad Aussie here...

All the best, Mark

[Yes, the shipping cost thing is an issue--for prints as well, and for that matter cameras too! I have never been able to buy a used camera from Australia because the shipping costs are just too high and "return privileges" are meaningless if you have to pay to ship it back. We got killed on shipping costs on our last print sale; they were very high across the board, not just to Australia. If you just want the book, the standard hardcover is available from The Book Depository, which includes free shipping worldwide. --Mike]

[Jeff]

A couple of older videos (8 years, and one year, respectively) might prove useful for those not familiar with Paula (and Michael), and maybe even for some who are.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WKrqpeyHJks

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MMPHtsMObLU

[Luke]

Sorta reminds me of Pentti Sammallahti.

[Kenneth Tanaka]

I was able to spend a day with Paula and Michael some years ago during their visit to Chicago (which you might have helped arrange). She was a charming person, very supportive of Michael's work at the time. It's good to see her now getting some well-deserved spotlight on her own work.

[John Camp]

I ordered the deluxe. I have a small collection of plains photography books, and the standard is quite high. One of my favorites is Steve Fitch's "Gone," which is about the way the great plains have simply been abandoned. It's almost the opposite of what I expect from the Chamlee book.

[Doug Howk]

Several years ago some friends and I attended a workshop with Michael & Paula at a local college in Daytona, FL.. They were traveling to south Florida to see his mother; but spent several days with us in north Florida. Both the field work and the evenings spent in the darkroom were invigorating.
As to the book, the quality of the reproductions were near the quality of her original AZO prints.

[John Krill]

Well you made me do it again. But you have never led me wrong.

I'm looking forward to this one.