Any estimation of the worth of the photography in "Looking for the Summer" will depend upon what the observer wants in his or her art at the moment. If you're looking for the highest caliber nature photography or the best of Jim Brandenburg's work, this is not it. "Looking for the Summer" is a sequel to "Chased by the Light", a personal project that Brandenburg published in 1998 to surprising success. After years of globe-trotting for National Geographic, the man was burned out. In an effort to "restore his soul" and return to his art, Brandenburg devised to make a single photograph per day from the autumnal equinox to the winter solstice, in the place he calls home, Minnesota's north woods.
Encouraged by the overwhelming positive reaction, Brandenburg applied a similar principle to a different season. "Looking for the Summer" are photographs taken between the summer solstice and autumnal equinox, again in the north woods of Minnesota but also on the prairie, the landscape of Brandenburg's youth. This time he didn't take just one photo per day. He took many and presumably chose his favorite to represent each of the 94 days. Most photographs are displayed one-to-a-page, though there are a couple of 2-page panoramas. Thirty-seven pages at the end of the book tell "The Stories" behind the photographs which are, frankly, tedious. But I don't think anyone will pick this book up for the text.
These photographs are not all outstanding. Some are not even good. Brandenburg has been criticized for obvious technical flaws. In truth, fewer than 10% of these photographs are technically flawed, either out-of-focus, overexposed, or riddled with digital noise. Some of these effects are successful, some not. The quality, in general, varies widely. While many photos are mundane, some are quite striking. The variety of styles and subjects made this book a good choice for gift-giving in my case: plants, wildlife, flowers, water, sky, landscapes, abstract, macro, and even a double-exposure.
The naturalism of "Looking for the Summer" is what really endears it to me. The colors are not pumped up. There is not one sliver of Velvia Green or magenta. My favorite photos are those which don't seem sure of their subject. I must look around to find whatever the photo wants to reveal. The best ones are surprising, and I keep returning to them. The quality in "Looking for the Summer" is admittedly uneven. But the photographs don't look like everything else in the marketplace. Having been a nature photography aficionado for 15 years, I tired long ago of the vast majority of nature work, no matter how technically impressive, because it all looks the same.