Treasured Lands: A Photographic Odyssey Through America’s National Parks

It is said that a photograph helped launch the national parks. After Congress viewed Carleton Watkins’s photos of Yosemite, President Lincoln was moved to sign the Yosemite Valley Grant Act in 1864, a bill that also paved the way for the US National Park Service, now celebrating its centennial. In this fitting tribute to the more than 84 million acres of protected wilderness, QT Luong presents Treasured Lands: A Photographic Odyssey Through America’s National Parks.

Luong, who is featured in Ken Burns’s documentary The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, is one of today’s most prolific and versatile national park photographers and the only one known to have made large-format photographs in each of America’s 59 parks. In an odyssey spanning more than 20 years and 300 visits, Luong focused his lenses on iconic landscapes and remote spots, presenting his journey in a sumptuous gallery of more than 400 breathtaking images. Accompanying the gallery is a guide that includes a map for each park, showing where the shots were taken and providing anecdotes and natural history. With a foreword by award-winning author Dayton Duncan, Treasured Lands is a rich visual tour of the US National Parks.