Korongo's first deluxe coffee-table book showcases the work of one of our region's most dedicated observers. In photographic portraits and scenes of rural life, fifth-generation Vermonter Jack Rowell captures a society in transition, where survival depends on timeless virtues—creativity, resilience—and a certain amount of luck. This hardcover  retrospective of his life's work includes more than 120 full-page photographs, a mix of black-and-white and color images dating back to the 1970s and the era of dark-room photography. It begins with life in tiny Tunbridge, Vermont, Jack's boyhood home, and ends with the powerful nudes and other studio portraits that mark the zenith of his career. Jack selected the images himself from an archive that spans more than fifty years.
 
Vermont artist Kate Mueller worked closely with Jack on the book’s design; printing was handled by Penmor Lithographers in Lewiston, Maine. The decision, approved by Jack, to go with a New England printer was a matter of pride: It just didn’t seem right that a book featuring the life's work of a fifth-generation Vermonter would arrive on a boat from China.
 
Our price of $85 is a limited-time offer to boost sales in the region depicted in Jack's work. But the book far transcends any geographic boundaries. As Americans struggle through one of the most divisive periods in our nation’s history, Jack’s work is a reminder that the human story is one of both hardship and triumph, and that to see ourselves as we truly are demands love, humor, irony, and respect.