Barber, Craig. Ghosts in the Landscape: Vietnam Revisited by Craig Barber. Essay by Alison Devine Nordstrom.

Umbrage, 2006.  First edition. 112 pages. Hardcover in protected dust jacket, almost like new with just a trace of wear only upon close examination.  Well known for his landscape photography, Barber was a marine in Vietnam for twenty months during the Vietnam War. This book is the result of three trips he made there between 1995 and 1998.  He worked with self-constructed pinhole cameras to create large format negatives, from which he made platinum prints on textured paper.  This oblong innovative book is presented in the form of diptychs and triptychs, as they were shot by Barber in the field, resulting in panoramic views with vertical black lines separating the images.  Nordstrom, photo curator at the George Eastman Museum, provides an illuminating essay on Barber's life and work.  List of the 46 plates in the back of the book.  Note: scans of covers are cropped a bit because the book is a little too large to fit on my scanner.  Summary:

Ghosts in the Landscape: Vietnam Revisited (2006) is a haunting, evocative collection of panoramic photographs that document the physical and psychological terrain of post-war Vietnam. Captured by Craig Barber, a combat veteran who served in Vietnam in the late 1960s, the book represents a deeply personal journey to confront the "ghosts" of his past through the lens of a large-format pinhole camera.

Core Narrative and Methodology

The project began when Barber returned to Vietnam 28 years after his service. Rather than using modern, high-speed equipment, he chose to work with pinhole cameras—a primitive technology that requires long exposures.

• The Pinhole Aesthetic: This technique results in images with an infinite depth of field and a soft, dreamlike blur. Moving objects disappear or become ethereal shadows, mimicking the way memory fades or distorts over time.

• The "Invisible" War: The photographs do not show active conflict, but rather the quiet beauty of a landscape that has reclaimed its battlefields. The images act as a bridge between the violent memory of the veteran and the serene reality of the present.

Key Contributions

• Craig Barber: His photographs explore the concept of "sacred ground," finding a strange peace in the rice paddies, villages, and mountains that once held different meanings for him.

• Alison Devine Nordstrom: The accompanying essay by the renowned photography curator provides critical context, discussing the intersection of history, trauma, and the transformative power of landscape photography.

Format and Themes

• Published: 2006 by Umbrage Editions.

• Visual Style: The book features rich, sepia-toned duotone panoramas. The wide-angle format mimics the human field of vision, pulling the viewer into the stillness of the Vietnamese countryside.

• Themes: Memory, reconciliation, the passage of time, and the healing capacity of nature.

Summary: Ghosts in the Landscape is a poignant meditation on the aftermath of war. It is less a documentary of a country and more a visual poem about the scars we carry and the quiet, persistent beauty of the world that survives our conflicts.