Australian physicist and photographer, Peter Elliston, packed his cumbersome 8x10-inch view camera and travelled over many years to eighteen countries on four continents seeking out and photographing petrolgyphs and pictographs, standing stones, monuments, and ancient ruins. In this beautiful oversized book, each photograph is accompanied by commentary by Elliston on the historical importance of each of the sites, or by accounts by the nineteenth century archaeologists and explorers who first discovered many of these places. The combination of photographs and writing provide an extremely rich experience.

The photographs in Stones and Marks have been reproduced to the highest possible standards: incomparable 600-line screen quadtone printed on heavy coated stock with specially modified inks on a unique, custom-designed Heidelberg press. A sturdy French-fold dust jacket complements and protects the book.

An enduring curiosity about our past has led Peter Elliston to locate, research, decode, and record the historically significant visual and textual information found in Stones and Marks. In this book, Elliston's exquisite photographs are powerfully combined with his scholarly writing. His sharp-focused photographs, made with an 8 x 10-inch view camera, convey valuable descriptive information while revealing great beauty. His research and writing enhance our knowledge about the sites by drawing on the sketches and writings that early explorers and modern archaeologists created in the same locations, and by providing translations of ancient inscriptions, with information about who made them and when. Perhaps most important, the remnants of the ancient monuments link us to our past and offer profound connections. In Stones and Marks, we learn about our ancestors—and, ultimately, about ourselves as their successors.

"The ancient stones speak. In every country our ancestors have left their marks—inscriptions on rocks, standing stones, and monuments that are being slowly eroded by natural forces and the indifference of humans. From these remaining stones and marks, we are able to gather the scant, seductive clues left behind by vanished civilizations—messages from the silenced voices of our ancestors."

About the author

Peter Elliston has exhibited his photographs extensively in Australia and the United States and is represented in various major collections, including the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, the Hallmark Collection in Kansas City, the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Born near Melbourne, he lives in Sydney with his wife Jane. Elliston holds a Ph.D. in Physics from Monash University and for twenty-five years was Senior Lecturer in Physics at the University of New South Wales.

77 reproductions, 172 pages, 13" x 11"
Purchase  Hardcover Edition: $85
Purchase  Special Limited Edition: $950

Signed, numbered, slipcased and custom-bound, the Special Limited Edition comes with your choice of one of five photographs from the book for a price substantially less than the photographs alone would cost.