Photo: Jacob Bond Hessler

Dear friends,

In our corner of Maine, the leaves have finally fallen after an extended and glorious foliage season and we have donned our fluorescent orange clothing accessories for walks in the great outdoors because it’s hunting season. Goodbye garden tomatoes and basil on the repeat and hello squash, cider and soup bubbling on the stove. This time of year is what separates the good time summertime folk (we love you! See you in a few months) with us stalwart year rounders who are looking down the cold hard barrel of Winter. And this year’s barrel is sobering indeed after the election. We’ll be throwing some extra wood on the fire and burning candles galore to offset the chill we profoundly feel. The image above by Two Ponds collaborator, Jacob Bond Hessler, reminds us to breathe and to follow the light that shines through the dark places. Hessler’s work was featured in TPP edition, BOUNDARIES (2017), along with presidential inaugural poet, Richard Blanco. Jacob has been posting some mighty fine photos on his insta @jacobbondhessler or on his website.

Speaking of light, we are proud to announce the publication of a new book and she’s dazzling! GOLD TREES is a celebration and contemplation of the sacred nature of trees, featuring a collection of golden photographic prints by the widely revered photographer Joyce Tenneson and accompanied by poetic responses by Claire Millikin.

Joyce Tenneson, portrait by Alissa Hessler at Two Ponds Press.

The publication of Gold Trees marks fifty years since Joyce Tenneson's trailblazing exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC, returning full circle to the immutable power and spirituality of trees. Tenneson has bathed this series in gold, harkening back to sacred icons and alchemy. The letterpress ink color is gold as are elements of the binding. The book is quite literally luminous in subject and design in celebration of her Golden Jubilee. She employs her signature ability to peel back the surface veneer of her subjects, in this case trees, rendering them mythic yet intimately touching. The images are monumental yet humble and vulnerable. Tenneson has also written the introduction. 

Poet, writer and scholar, Claire Millikin, responded directly to the images with elegant poems as well as an afterward, speaking to Joyce’s storied place in the history of 21st century photography.  There are 25 copies available for sale, each containing 16 mounted images and an additional photo printed on aluminum and housed in the clamshell box. The design and layout are conceived by Anneli Skaar. Letterpress printing by Art Larson at Horton Tank Graphics. Binding is in 1/4 leather with marbled endpapers and housed in a clamshell box, created by Amy Borezo of Shelter Bookworks 

Pre-publication price $5000.

We will be debuting GOLD TREES at Tropic Bound, a biennial artist’s book fair and symposium, in Miami, Florida, February 6-9. https://www.tropicboundfair.org/ 

All portraits by Alissa Hessler. All book photography by Rachel Coleman.

Above right: Claire Millikin (left) and Joyce Tenneson at Two Ponds Press in Camden, Maine. Below: Joyce Tenneson.

OTHER BOOKS IN THE WORKS:

Mount Katahdin by artist Stephen Hannock

Paul Caponigro and John Paul Caponigro. Father son first collaboration.

Margaret Wise Brown. Three stories with etchings by Sarah Horowitz.