A Quiet Place to Land by Rex Wilder

Recently released from the hospital that treated him through a mental collapse, award-winning poet and photographer Rex Wilder began going for daily walks around California’s Venice canals.

It was on these walks that he started photographing birds and experimenting with digital overpainting as a tool to reimagine his photographs. This process helped recharge his spiritual battery and pave a path to mental wellness.

A Quiet Place to Land is a collection of these reimagined photographs paired with Rex’s lyrical, earnest reflections, with an introduction by Molli Corcoran. Inspired by early 20th century Pictorialists, Rex transforms his photographs one digital brushstroke at a time.

Spreading digital paint on a digital canvas, he carefully layers colors and textures on top of his photos, pulling to the forefront the things that feel most important, thereby creating lasting moments of joy, connection, and safety–glimmers and reflections that he can share with others.

Perhaps this book will provide you with a moment of solace, to sit and observe beauty. Sometimes a moment is enough.