Books by Claudia Toutain-Dorbec

A Year in the Southwest, A Botanical Journey

Photographs by Claudia Toutain-Dorbec

Foreword by Elaine McGinn

Afterword by Shelby Perkins

Paperback ISBN 978-0-980243-24-6

Pages: 164 / Full Color

Format: 8 x 10" - 203 x 254 mm

Retail Price: 49.99

  Claudia Toutain-Dorbec, an Oregon Coast migrant in New Mexico, finds herself in a land of snakes and sagebrush, and explores the Southwest botanical countryside through her camera lens. She discovers it filled with cowboy charm, ancient Native American pueblos, the Rio Grande and the Santa Fe Railroad, towering mesas, buffalo, hidden arroyos, juniper, piñon and cottonwood trees. There is a great diversity of landscapes and plant life on Earth, and nowhere is this more dramatic than in the American Southwest. The photographs of Claudia Toutain-Dorbec are about her relationship with the natural world. She approaches her botanical subjects as a portrait, creating images that are forceful, meaningful and beautiful. She walks a tightrope between the real and mystical. Her wilderness is trodden, yet she accepts it as it is: worthy of exploration. Perfect. Imperfect. Inspirational.    

  Beyond his technique, beyond his palette, what Monet brought to Giverny was his vision. In the same way, beyond her camera and experience, the unique vision that Claudia Toutain-Dorbec brought there shines through in her lavish creations of color and form. “Personal, novel, philosophical, poetic” – these are the ways French curator Nicole Zapata-Aubé sees Claudia’s work. And they are the links as well between her own photographic artistry and the beauty that both inspired and was brought to life by Claude Monet.