From Publishers Weekly
It’s fitting that the photographs in this oversized volume are matte, not glossy, and that they don’t initially overwhelm viewers with exuberant displays of glitz. Rather, like the place they depict, the photos are refined, somewhat muted and generally plain, yet evocative. Ellison, a summer resident of Martha’s Vineyard and author of The Ballet Book, Barbie Live and other books, organizes this collection by time of day. Her "Morning" photos show misty beaches, hazy country roads, boaters setting out for the day, the breakfast rush at the Art Cliff diner and tourists disembarking from the Island Queen ferry. "Afternoon" brings deeper blue skies, bathers taking a mid-day dip, men with cable-knit sweaters draped over their shoulders enjoying a cocktail on board the KelDi and a bright red lighthouse standing high above azure seas. Naturally, sunsets are the most striking of Ellison’s "Evening" shots, and her treatments of these scenes range from typical (orange-streaked skies over calm waters) to more unusual (a skiff speeding home as the sky turns pink). Travel writer Paul Theroux, a resident of nearby Cape Cod, has contributed an essay to this volume, in which he fetes the island’s different moods, a subject Ellison deftly plays with in her lovely, varying photographs. 150 full-color photos.
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Book Description
Award-winning photographer Nancy Ellison offers an intimate glimpse of America's most fabled vacation island-Martha's Vineyard. Her romantic photographs capture landmarks such as the beautifully colored Gay Head Cliffs, the bustling farmers' market, weathered clapboard houses, haunting sunsets, and picturesque lighthouses. Ellison also explores unexpected views of the changing landscape that have often been overlooked.
Accompanying the photographs is text by Cape Cod resident and renowned travel writer Paul Theroux. His evocative essay reflects on the changing moods of the Vineyard. Diverse Island personalities including year round residents such as the shipbuilders and lobster men as well as celebrities Art Buchwald, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Walter Cronkite, Carly Simon, Bill Styron, Mike Wallace, and others come together in Vineyard Days, Vineyard Nights. There has not been a Vineyard book in many years. And now, Ellison's collection of photographs fills that gap and makes the perfect souvenir of the Island. The book is not only a wonderful treasure for visitors but is an intimate portrait of the Vineyard that residents will recognize and embrace as their own.
