Four Corners Country

Four Corners country is ""rock as far as the eye can see'' and the black-and-white photographs of Arentz illustrate the grandeur and loneliness of the vast region where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah meet. Thompson, a fifth-generation Coloradan (and executive director of the Crow Canyon Archeological Center) provides a verbal overview of the natural history of the Four Corners as well as an account of its human inhabitantsnative dwellers, Spanish settlers and boomtime carpetbaggers. Arentz uses a large-format camera and is loyal to the classic tradition of American landscape photography, but his realism does not preclude an intimacy with the land and an eye for texture and shape. Only a few of the photographers have human subjects, and these are conveyed less expressively than the landscapes. But Arentz and Thompson are knowing and sensitive guides through this awesome land. (October 15)