Hiroshi Watanabe’s gorgeous monograph “Findings” shows, in a subtle and elegant way, small stories of daily life in far-flung corners of the world such as Ecuador, Japan, Burma, Iceland, and Tahiti. In these images, seemingly simple, Watanabe’s wisdom emerges without visual complications.

“These are honest and direct pictures; they bear a heavy silence, and are uncomplicated, singular ideas. These words invite a closer look uncompromised by time. They suggest a meditation that can bring to the surface what could otherwise have remained hidden — that opening in the sky beyond the child and his maze, and what it can mean.”

- Anthony Bannon, George Eastman House Director

Hardbound, 64 pages, 57 photographs

“Cage Call: Life in the Hard Rock Mining Belt,” documents the people, land, and work in the mining region of Northern Canada. From quiet landscapes of the surrounding areas, to haunting portraits of the miners, to dramatic, shadowy images inside the shaft, Palu’s images simultaneously tell the humanistic stories of miners, their wives, and communities, as well as those of the industry, history, and tension between labor and enterprise. Identity, community, life, death, all swept together in the folds of light and shadow within Palu’s photographs.

“These images relate to a photographic tradition pioneered by Leslie Sheddon in Nova Scotia, Russell Lee in West Virginia, Bill Brandt in Wales, and Sebastiao Salgado in his more recent images of South American miners. Palu’s mining project also has strong links with Steve McQueen’s video Western Deep, shot in a South African gold mine.”

- Bill Jefferies, Director Simon Fraser University Art Gallery

Softbound, 64 pages, 48 photographs, text by Charles Anguss

“Perfectible Worlds” is about people’s private passions and obsessions. Begun soon after 9/11/01, the series portrays people transported into worlds and activities over which they have near-total control. The photographs range from portraits of some who make extravagant miniature worlds, to others who have extraordinary collections or who immerse themselves in unusual pursuits. Each photograph is the discovery of a particular world an individual has found or created for himself — a private world that few are privileged to see.

“Sohier’s encounter with the marvelous takes us deep into private terrain, into a world of near-obsessive collections, hobbies, adornments, achievements, and attentions to detail. Her images register a desire for perfection and control in a world that — more often than not of late — seems to have slipped into chaos, destined for political and environmental ruin.”

- John Beardsley, Harvard University

Softbound, 64 pages, 58 photographs