New books provide a double whammy of stunning photography

Two new Michigan-centric books are the kind you will pull off the shelf just to look at. You will turn to a page and go, “Wow.” Then you will want to show what you found to someone else.

Both are composed of photographs, but one looks at the natural beauty of the Great Lakes, while the other focuses on the built environment.

“The Third Coast,” published by Northwestern University Press, with a foreword by Michigan writer Jerry Dennis, showcases the beauty of the Great Lakes across two countries, numerous states and four seasons. The photos are by David Zurick, who grew up in a small town on Lake Huron.

The book takes an unusual look at the lakes, designating specific seasons to each one: winter photographs are from Superior, spring photographs are from Michigan, summer photographs are from Erie and Ontario, and autumn photographs are from Huron.

Dennis takes a philosophical approach to his foreword, recounting his life enjoying the lakes, worrying about their future and being elated over their rebirth, as well as noting the challenges they face in the modern world.

He briefly describes using a telescope to watch freighters from foreign countries ply the Great Lakes and, with candor, tells us why we should worry about their future. He believes the greatest threat to the Great Lakes is “anything that causes us to turn our backs, become cynical, lose hope.”

He finishes, “What David Zurick clearly knows: There’s a soul to this place, and it touches our souls.” Readers will be struck by beautiful photographs of waterfront locations like the snow-covered cottages of Chippewa County and the desolate lighthouse at Whitefish Point.

The photos of spring on Lake Michigan take you to the Holland tulip festival and the sand dunes of Benzie County. Some of the photographs will make you belly laugh, like the statue of JoLean the Uniroyal Gal in Northport or the odd pirates at a miniature golf course in Emmet County. Some photographs will warm your heart, like a Labrador swimming in the glass-like water in Frankfort.

Fall finds Lake Huron in transition, and the photographs are enchanting. If you grew up anywhere near Huron like I did, you will immediately be pulled into the beauty of the Thumb. Memories will flood back. The photo of giant piles of sugar beets waiting to be processed in Sebewaing, for instance, will remind you of grabbing one to take to school for show and tell, a rite of passage repeated every year.

In his afterword, Zurick writes, “The lake has never left me. In significant ways, I became the person I am because of it. Whenever I visit my hometown, I head to the water.” Millions of Michiganders know that feeling, myself included.

“Contemporary Michigan: Iconic Houses at the Epicenter of Modernism,” by Peter Forguson, grabs and holds you in a similar way. When some people think of modernism, they think of big cities or the West Coast, but this new book and its astounding photography will change your mind about that trope.

Forguson takes you into 70 homes in Michigan that were designed by leading modernist architects, including Frank Lloyd Wright, Eliel Saarinen, Alden B. Dow, Gunnar Birkerts, Richard Meier, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and many others. You will be surprised to find that some of these homes are in our own backyard. For example, the Charles and Grace Bachman House in East Lansing was designed by Dow. The Larry & Faylene Owen House, also in East Lansing, was designed by Irving Tobocman. The Goetsch-Winckler House in Okemos was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Each home is represented by a three-to-four-page spread highlighting the interiors and exterior. The furnishings and art are almost as spectacular as the houses themselves. Forguson’s skills as a photographer are on full display, especially since the interiors of homes are challenging to photograph.

This is Forguson’s second book on modernist architecture. The other, “Detroit Modern: 1935-1985,” is more than worth your time. I’d also recommend the excellent books “Alexander Girard, Architect,” by Deborah Lubera Kawsky, and “Mid-Michigan Modern,” by East Lansing art historian Susan Bandes.