In this landmark collection William T. Vollmann offers a kaleidoscopic retrospective of the visual artwork he has produced over four decades with new commentary from Vollmann on his process inspiration and the many intersections with his writing.The celebrated author of over twentyfive books among them the National Book Awardwining novel Europe Central the sevenvolume Rising Up and Rising Down based on Vollmanns career as a war correspondent and the twovolume climate change investigation Carbon Ideologies Vollmanns equally ambitious and prolific career as a photographer printmaker and painter reflects the artists deep interest in people existing on the margins a profound empathy for his subjects and the humility and generosity to meet them on their terms.Shadows of Love Shadows of Loneliness includes Kodachrome slides of Afghan Mujahideen from 1982 a handmade watercolor sketchbook from Subarctic Canada complete with inscriptions to Vollmann from local Inuit teenagers gum bichromate prints of American landscapes from Maui to Mount Desert Island silver gelatin portfolios of insurgents refugees prostitutes police and criminals all over the world photogenic drawings of Tahitian women transgender selfportraits of ampampquotDoloresampampquot Bible woodblock prints in which God and everyone else is female acrylic paintings of California landscapes cyanotypes platinotypes salt prints and goldtoned Vandykes to name just a few.Complementing these selections is a series of essays commissioned especially for this book to lay out Vollmanns views on what photographs can and should say how he chooses what to represent beauty suffering compassion love desire ideology thoughts on photographic consensuality and any number of technical descriptions. Particularly useful for Vollmann fans and scholars are the crossreferences between these artistic and photographic projects and his books.