Author reading: 'Picturing the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition'

"Picturing the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition: The Photographs of Frank H. Nowell" By Nicolette Bromberg (University of Washington Press, 128 pp., $35)

For those wanting a lasting souvenir of the Nowell show at MOHAI, this lavish volume should do the trick. Bromberg, a visual-materials curator in Special Collections at the UW, includes some of Nowell's Alaskan photos along with numerous A-Y-P shots (in 1909, Nowell had studios in both Nome and Seattle), and her useful introduction reveals some of his tricks.

In his shot of Mount Rainier looming over the fairgrounds, for instance, the mountain looks as large as it does because the background image is from a different negative than the foreground.

Bromberg also delivers this shocker: When Nowell died in 1950, none of his obituaries mentioned his A-Y-P work.

Bonus feature: 30 pages of then-and-now UW campus shots by photographer John Stamets and his students.

Bromberg discusses the book at 7 p.m. Sept. 21, University Book Store, 4326 University Way N.E., Seattle; free (206-634-3400 or www.ubookstore.com).

Michael Upchurch: mupchurch@seattletimes.com