Exposing the Wilderness: Early-Twentieth-Century Adirondack Postcard Photographers

Exposing the Wilderness explores New York State's Adirondack Mountains through the "lives and images of six early-twentieth-century postcard photographers who left a revealing visual documentary of this wilderness region and its culture in the 1900s.

Robert Bogdan combines a richly descriptive text with striking illustrations to create vivid biographical sketches of these pioneer photographers, who worked their individual styles to illuminate six different regions of the Adirondack Mountains.

The book also provides insight into the popular culture of the times mainly through postcards but it also takes an in-depth look at the families and work lives of these artisans as they plied their trade in the popular venue of commercial postcards.

Aside from the Adirondack locals and a few postcard connoisseurs, the gifted folk artists and craftspeople profiled here were virtually unknown until now. Bogdan has collected nearly 250 illustrations including postcards and photographs depicting Adirondack life of the time. Many of these images have never before been published.