Orion Magazine - May/June 2010

AlEx wEbb REbEccA nORRIS wEbb
cOll AbORATIvE pHOTOgRApHy bOOKS are difficult to pull off—maybe even more so by a husband-and-wife team, and especially
when each is offering pictures (as opposed to one providing the text). pick a popular, well-photographed subject like cuba for even more
of a challenge. Violet Isle (Radius books, 2009), by Alex webb and Rebecca norris webb, easily overcomes these difficulties. Made from
eleven trips to cuba over fifteen years, the book alternates between his and her images almost page by page, mixing Rebecca’s painterly
vignettes with Alex’s harder-edged narrative into a single, deep, organically cohesive vision of this iconic island.

he asserts, “is an old-growth forest of the mind, a watershed of thought, an ecosystem of spiritual possibilities,” and thus we cannot afford to lose them.

It’s not easy convincing the modern world that indigenous peoples and their cultures matter, that they are in fact vital to our ecological and cultural health. Many who have tried have failed to articulate the value and beauty of ancient cultures without belittling the technological and cultural accomplishments of modernism. Davis succeeds by reminding readers that “the path we have taken is not the only one available,” and that we need to listen closely to people, many of them illiterate, who are nonetheless “alive and fighting, not only for their

cultural survival but also
to take part in a global dia-
logue that will define the
future of life on earth.”
will respond to this question in thousands
of different voices, which “collectively
comprise our human repertoire for deal-
ing with all the challenges that will con-
front us as a species . . . as we continue
this never-ending journey,” with whatever
navigation tools we possess.

— Mark Dowie

STATEMEn T OF OwnERSHIp, MAnAgEMEn T, AnD cIRculATIOn

(Required by 39 U.S.C. 3685)

1. Title of publication: ORION (pub. no. 694-910)

2. Filing date: July/August, 2009

3. Full names and mailing addresses of publisher, editor, and managing editor. Publisher: M.G.H. Gilliam; Editor-in-Chief: H. Emerson Blake; Editor: Jennifer Sahn.

Address for all: 187 Main Street, Great Barrington, MA 01230.

4. Owner: The Orion Society and The Myrin Institute, 187 Main Street, Great Barrington, MA 01230.

5. Known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders owning or holding one percent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages or other securities: None.