Ulster County: Discovering Home
By John Fischer (NoRoadUnturned.com, 2018)$40 ($5/book donated to local nonprofits)
Who says you can’t go home again? Tillson-born “modern-day nomad” John Fischer returns to the home turf he thought he’d outgrown, with camera in hand and his heart wide open. Many elegant coffee table books celebrate the Hudson Valley’s scenic splendor, and Fischer doesn’t stint on iconic calendar shots, often adding original twists like shooting Mohonk’s Skytop Tower from above, or transforming Kingston’s bustling Wall Street into an Edward Hopper nightscape. But where he shines is portraying the idiosyncratic beauty of the region’s residents. If you live here, you probably know someone who appears in these pages: Chef John Novi; Rosendale Picklefest founder Bill Brooks; Diane Reeder of the Kingston Candy Bar; Wired Gallery’s Sevan Melikyan; or one of many local farmers, shopkeepers, DJs, teachers, kids, nuns, volunteers, or Little Brays of Sunshine donkeys. Fischer’s labor of love is an ideal gift for past, present, and future residents of Ulster County.