Laura McPhee

A powerfully evocative photographic chronicle of the high desert of the American West Spanning almost all of Nevada and Utah and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, and Wyoming, the sparsely populated regions of the Great Basin and the Basin and Range Province have stories to tell—stories intimate and vast, familial, historical, and geological. In Silence So Deep It Rings, renowned landscape photographer Laura McPhee challenges the tradition of nineteenth-century survey photography, capturing the sheer beauty and depth of the West while conveying what has since occurred on the surface of the land. Using a large-format Deardorff camera, McPhee explores how people live in a fragile ecosystem within a changing climate, recording the many transformations occurring across both human and geological time. She looks at evidence of Indigenous peoples, at byproducts of settlers’ empire building and resource extraction—at a marred environment, perceiving time itself, from the generational embrace of family to the enormity of billions of years. McPhee documents her own existence in rural Idaho, registering the disturbing fact that our politics, practices, and collective complacency have taken us to the edge of what is ecologically sustainable. With perspectives on the American West by John McPhee, who documented his exploration of the region decades earlier, and an in-depth interview with Laura and her father by Ian Frazier, Silence So Deep It Rings offers a profound and moving reflection on the ways human endeavor intersects with the miracle of the natural world.

What if schools were environments where staff feel trusted, valued and safe? Where they understand their individual contribution to the success of the whole. Where they are supported to prioritise their own wellbeing, to share challenges with colleagues and to make and learn from mistakes. In Empowering Teachers, Improving Schools, headteacher and educationalist Laura McPhee shares her approach to school leadership. An approach that harnesses the power of belonging and psychological safety to empower educators. Laura explores the research evidence and outlines how organisations that promote psychological safety and accountability demonstrate improved performance. A practical guide for school leaders enabling them to shape schools into spaces where staff are able to question, provide supportive challenge and think critically. Spaces where school improvement is driven forward through a positive shared approach.

What if schools were environments where staff feel trusted, valued and safe? Where they understand their individual contribution to the success of the whole. Where they are supported to prioritise their own wellbeing, to share challenges with colleagues and to make and learn from mistakes. In Empowering Teachers, Improving Schools, headteacher and educationalist Laura McPhee shares her approach to school leadership. An approach that harnesses the power of belonging and psychological safety to empower educators. Laura explores the research evidence and outlines how organisations that promote psychological safety and accountability demonstrate improved performance. A practical guide for school leaders enabling them to shape schools into spaces where staff are able to question, provide supportive challenge and think critically. Spaces where school improvement is driven forward through a positive shared approach.

A portrayal of the unique and vibrant city of Calcutta, shown in an intriguing array of captivating and visually arresting photographs Photographer Laura McPhee, noted for her stunning large-scale landscapes and portraits of the people who live and work in them, has been traveling to eastern India for over a decade. There she has devoted her perceptive vision to picturing layers of history, culture, religion, and class as they appear in private heritage homes and public markets, in lively street festivals, and in the faces of city dwellers in Calcutta (also known as Kolkata). This exquisitely produced book features a selection of McPhee’s works made in and around India’s former capital. Here we glimpse courtyards, living spaces, temples, and altars as both vestiges of the past and elements of contemporary urban existence. McPhee’s images sensitively penetrate the surface to show the blurred boundaries between social classes, the blending of public and private life, and the resonance between India and other parts of the world. Also included are a foreword by Amitav Ghosh on the historical divisions inherent in the city’s culture and on the nature of McPhee’s work, and an essay by art historian Romita Ray on the ways McPhee captures and distills the remnants of colonial Calcutta in her photographs of the contemporary city.