When I worked on the Navaho Reservation at Shiprock, N.M., in the ‘70’s, a friend gave me this book of superb photographs. The portraits of individuals and family groups resonate with me to this day. The intimacy and serenity of the people portrayed is still remarkable to me, given the harsh, unforgiving life they lead. The landscapes display the dramatic settings of desert, mountain, and canyon in which the Navaho live; and its scenes of daily activity show many of the details of the way their life has been lived. Miss Gilpin has created a touching tribute to The People, their endurance, a record of the Navajo people and their country,and their adaptability, to their vanishing way of life;a book to keep and to refer to over and over again. Laura Gilpin was unique among women chroniclers of the Southwest because she worked in photography. She
perceived the region as an environment for human activity rather than a place for untouched beauty, and her empathy for her subjects is evident in her work. Gilpin's sixty-year career established her as one of the outstanding photographers of the twentieth century. ( )