In Stoddard's Footsteps : The Adirondacks Then and Now: Featuring the Photography of Seneca Ray Stoddard and Mark Bowie

In a career spanning the settling of the Adirondack Wilderness, the heyday of the guide, the steamship, and the grand hotel, pioneer photographer Seneca Ray Stoddard produced more than eight thousand images of the evolving landscape - the most comprehensive photo-documentary record of late nineteenth century life in the region. A skilled mapmaker, surveyor, illustrator and writer, Stoddard was an unabashed Adirondack promoter, as prolific with a pen as with a camera. From his Glens Falls studio, he and his assistants published photographic prints and stereographs, guidebooks, brochures, train schedules, newsletters and maps. More than a century after Stoddard focused his cameras on the region, renowned Adirondack photographer and writer Mark Bowie literally followed in his footsteps, faithfully re-photographing the exact locations of some of his classic images, revealing changes in the landscape and its people over the last one hundred to one hundred twenty-five years. It is a fascinating study, the results sometimes surprising, in every case, illuminating.

Mark Bowie is a native Adirondacker, professional nature photographer, writer and much sought-after public speaker, offering presentations to camera clubs, environmental groups and others. He’s a frequent contributor to Adirondack Life magazine and other publications. His first two coffee table books, Adirondack Waters and In Stoddard’s Footsteps, have become landmark regional publications. He followed those with The Adirondacks: In Celebration of the Seasons. Each won the Adirondack Center for Writing’s Photography Book of the Year Award. He has also authored two extensive e-books on night photography: The Light of Midnight and After Midnight, and recently released one on his photographic journey, Finding November. Mark is a staff instructor for the Adirondack Photography Institute (API) and leads digital and landscape photography workshops and tours.