With this book of color
photographs of the polished hearts
of stones portrayed as natural
paintings, BILL ATKINSON completes
his transition from whiz kid of
Silicon Valley to high priest of
Silica.
After helping to usher in the age
of personal computing by designing
the graphical user interface of the
Macintosh computer, Atkinson turned
his visual and technical talents to
nature photography. While shooting
in the Painted Desert, Atkinson
became intrigued with the brilliant
colors in the petrified wood
littering the ground. He brought
home some polished rock slabs,
photographed them in natural color
and without magnification, and was
enthralled. The photographs looked
more like paintings of forgotten
dreams than either rocks or
photographs. Atkinson went on to
borrow and photograph thousands of
art-quality stones at gem shows.
From these thousands of stones,
Atkinson has picked for WITHIN THE
STONE those seventy-two that yielded
the most striking, the most poetic,
and the most ineffable images. Many
of the photographs suggest the
styles of particular masters of
modern painting: Klee, Klimt,
Turner, O’Keefe.
To accompany these images, the
publisher commissioned seventy
literary pieces for WITHIN THE STONE
from seven top writers, each one
accomplished in both scientific and
artistic fields. Each writer was
asked to free-associate with his or
her ten assigned photographs as
though they were Rorschach patterns
on steroids. The seven contributors
are DIANE ACKERMAN (poet and
psychologist), PHILIP BALL (Nature
editor and dramatist), JOHN HORGAN
(science writer and philosopher),
ANDREW REVKIN (New York Times
reporter and screenplay writer),
DORION SAGAN (science writer and
novelist), TYLER VOLK (biologist and
architect), and DAVID ZINDELL
(science fiction novelist and
mathematician).
In an appendix to WITHIN THE
STONE, professional lapidaries SI
and ANN FRAZIER and mineral
scientist ROBERT HUTCHINSON provide
a detailed description and
commentary for each specimen.
Mark Edward
Harris, PC Photo
"Bill Atkinson uses digital
technology to reveal the inner
beauty of rocks."
Philip Ryan, Popular Photography
"From thousands of images, Atkinson
has selected his prize photos for
his fascinating new book, 'Within
the Stone'."
Lapidary Journal
High tech meets timeless beauty.
Arresting images are paired with
scientific profiles and literary
responses by esteemed experts and
writers.
Dan Miller, Macworld
One of Apple’s original software
stars, Atkinson is nowadays less
interested in code than in polished
stones photographed as art.
National Geographic
"Secret worlds, secret designs in
mesmerizing stone photos. Who says
only geologists can find poetry in a
rock?"
