Santa Fe & Northern New Mexico

This volume, featuring 128 color photos, is a follow-up to Santa Fe Style , for which Parsons was principle photographer and Mather coauthor. Here Mather combines enthusiasm for New Mexico's sensual geographic features and vast skies with a simple, brief history showing how Santa Fe's cultural diversity resulted from the uneasy convergence of Spaniards, Pueblos and marauding Native American tribes. Parsons primarily focuses on sun-drenched still-lifes and seems particularly taken with adobe architecture accented by vibrant desert flowers and brightly hued doors and window-frames. Several landscapes and portraits of Hispanic and Pueblo residents are included as well. Although the book may be useful in encouraging tourism, it is superficial, failing to evoke Santa Fe's famed stimulating atmosphere. (July)